trunk, and then is boiled down either to a syrup called palm honey, or to a crystallized mass, which in India is known as gur (Hindi) o r jaggery(English, via Portuguese from the Sanskrit sharkara) These same words are also used for unrefined cane sugars Unrefined palm sugar has a distinctive, winey aroma that contributes to the flavor of Indian, Thai, Burmese, and other South Asian and African cuisines Some palm sugar is refined to make more neutral white sugar Agave syrup is produced from the sap of various species of agave, desert plants native to the New World that are related to the cactus family The sugars in agave syrup are about 70% fructose and 20% glucose, so this syrup tastes sweeter than most Table Sugar: Cane and Beet sugars and Syrups The processing of cane and beet sugar is much more complicated than the production of honey and maple and palm sugars, and for one basic reason Bees and tree tappers begin with an isolated plant fluid that contains little else besides water and sugar But the raw material for table sugar is the crushed whole stem of the cane, or the whole root of the beet Cane and beet juices include many substances — proteins, complex carbohydrates, tannins, pigments — that not only interfere with the sweet taste themselves, but decompose into even less palatable chemicals at the high temperatures necessary for the concentration process Cane and beet sugar must therefore be separated from these impurities Preindustrial Sugar Refining From the late Middle Ages until the 19th century, when machinery changed nearly every sort of manufacturing, the treatment of sugar followed the same basic procedure There were four separate stages: clarifying the cane juice ...honey and maple and palm sugars, and for one basic reason Bees and tree tappers begin with an isolated plant fluid that contains little else besides water and sugar But the raw material... for table sugar is the crushed whole stem of the cane, or the whole root of the beet Cane and beet juices include many substances — proteins, complex carbohydrates, tannins, pigments — that not only interfere with the. .. pigments — that not only interfere with the sweet taste themselves, but decompose into even less palatable chemicals at the high temperatures necessary for the concentration process Cane and beet sugar must therefore be separated from these impurities