Sugar palm sap or juice can be processed to alcohol, vinegar, juice, sugar and syrup.
A good quality sap is necessary in order to produce high quality products.
The following steps are useful to obtain high quality sugar palm sap.
1.
Harvest sap from male flower.
The sap from female inflorescence is of inferior quality.
Male flower will rot after blooming while female flower will yield fruits that can be processed into sweet delicacy.
To differentiate, male flower is color violet while female is color green.
2.
Prepare the flower before tapping.
Clean the stalks from bracts and dirt.
Rock the stalk once a day everyday until the flower attracts hundreds of fruit flies.
Then beat the stalk lightly with stick until it become swollen.
Cut the stalk just above the highest flower bud.
This process can increase chances of getting a good drip from the stalk.
3.
Get a wide-mouth plastic container.
Hang it just below the tip of cut stem.
Cover it with plastic to prevent insects and impurities from entering.
The juice will begin to drip from stem apex.
4.
Harvest it twice a day, early morning and late afternoon.
For every collection, slice 5 mm of apex to maintain continuous drippings.
Juice quantity increases during rainy seasons and decreases during summer.
It also decreases as the apex get closer to base.
5.
Filter your harvest with cheesecloth and transfer to clean container.
6.
The sap turns quickly to alcohol and vinegar.
It is essential to pasteurize it to arrest fermentation if the intended products are juice drink, sugar and syrup.