Frequently used in Indian cuisine, dark brown, crumbly palm sugar -- also known as jaggery or gur -- is made from the reduced sap of either the sugar palm or the palmyra palm. The trunk of the tree is tapped and drained of its sap for several months before the sap is boiled down to a syrup. The syrup is then dried into cakes, traditionally in empty coconut shells. Occasionally, the syrup is smoked first, giving the sugar a black color and distinctive flavor.