Making Sugar Arenga

Sap is acidic by nature because of the process of bacterial fermentation by Saccharomyces sp. Therefore, the sap must be processed immediately after being taken from the tree, no later than 90 minutes after being removed from the tube.

Sap is poured while filtered with gauze wire made of copper material, then placed on top of the fireplace waiting to be heated (boiled). Heating was continued for 1-3 hours, depending on the amount (volume) of sap. The heating while churning up the sap boiling sap. Bubbles appearing on the surface of the boiling sap discarded, in order to obtain palm sugar that is not too dark-colored (black), dry and durable. Heating was terminated after the juice becomes thick with a volume of about 8%.

Sugar production print process can be done in two ways: directly from the sap of palm or sugar granule reject.

Print production process that uses sugar palm juice is usually only done at the level of craftsmen. Meanwhile, at the industry level, print the sugar produced from sugar granule sugar ants reject the clot and did not pass the sieve.

Nonetheless, in broad outline the production process there is no difference. The production process starts from tapping the sap, sap cooking, stirring and printing palm sugar. Tapping palm juice is usually taken twice a day ie morning and afternoon. Before tapping, lodong or bamboo container given a little lime water is basically aimed at reducing the risk of damage caused by palm juice culturing micro-organisms.

Nira results leads morning filtered using fibers of palm tree is then poured in the cauldron and cooked until done in order to be printed sugar intermediate is then stored. The aim is to cook the sap before it is stored to maintain durability, because crude palm juice only hold 3 hours. Sap is tapped in the afternoon, and then mixed with the juice in the morning is already cooked and then cooked together. In this cooking sap, also need to add cooking oil or coconut oil as much as 10 grams for every 25 liters of juice.

In the process of cooking, stirring occasionally. Upon entering the saturated phase is characterized by the formation of froth, stirring more frequently until the sugar palm sap becomes concentrated. In this phase also performed cleaning of foam and fine dirt. Palm sugar then printed in the mold of wood by cleaning the mold in advance using lime water and soak them with water to facilitate the release of palm sugar later.
Long cooking palm juice to be printed is 3-4 hours (Bank Indonesia, 2008).

To obtain high-quality palm sugar which is highly dependent on the quality of the processed juice. According to Joseph et al (1994), the sap is tapped in the morning have a lower pH than the sap that is collected in the afternoon because the sap is tapped on the morning sukrosanya lower levels of sap tapped afternoon. This is due to greater evaporation during the day than at night.

The results of the analysis of Joseph et al (1994) revealed that the treatment of shelter significant effect on levels of sucrose sap that is tapped in the afternoon, but had no significant effect on sucrose were intercepted in the morning. Sap used in raw materials should be above 12 percent sugar specificity of red palm sugar in terms of its chemical compared to other sugar is that brown sugar contains sucrose is higher (84%) compared to sugar cane (20%) and sugar beet (17%) .
In terms of nutritional content, palm sugar contains proteins, fats, potassium and phosphorus are higher than the sugar cane and sugar beet (Rumukoi, 1990).
Similarly, when compared with the sap of the coconut tree, palm juice is sweeter and more pungent aroma.

Many advantages compared with palm sugar palm sugar, which are (Dyanti, 2002) per eduksinya lower sugar content (10.31% vs. 11.72%) so that the sugar becomes harder and dried palm sugar and sucrose levels were also higher.