Where to get pure palm jaggery (patali gur/ kithul jaggery)

Krypto wrote:

Hi all, in lieu of the increasing adulteration of palm jaggery, im looking for pure patali/khejur gud (date palm jaggery) which is primarily available only in winters in bengal. Can anyone from bengal guide about authentic sources having courier facility to purchase from ? And what is the normal price range/kg ??

Also if anyone can help in fishtail palm jaggery (kithul jaggery), it will be great 🙏

primarily available only in winters in bengal

Are you sure about this.??

Are you @ Bangalore.?

Chargefree wrote:

primarily available only in winters in bengal

Are you sure about this.??

sometime in late 2019 (or early 2020 perhaps) i happened to be around at https://www.google.com/maps/@22.7198369,75.9061349,17z
and
some ভদ্রলোক were carefully examining and thereafter negotiating with a small shopkeeper cum vegetable vendor..about some … my skin coloured (darkish brown) stuff they had.
.
It was of no particular shspe and the convo. too was lost upon me (it was in chaste Bengali🙂)..
.. so i stuck around and craned my neck to where rest of the stock was kept in a sack (on the floor).
.
Still unclear, i was further confused by a dark black patch on the otherwise brown pieces.
But soon saw all the 🪰flies ..fly away.. and the pristine brown’ness restored.
.
Not sure if my dumbness was dripping from my face, but the elderly father of the (snobbish) young man/shopkeeper.. clarified on his own to me.. that it is gudd/ jaggery.
.
Next i mustered courage to ask the gentleman (and his friend) ভদ্রলোক if they were regular shoppers in the area.
They nodded and went on to add details of how certain peculiar veggies or groceriesgroceries needed for Bengali culinary delights were only available in that locality (Bangali Chouraha/ Bengali Roundabout).
.
He educated me with pride, about some of the things.
One of which was that jaggery.. assumedly double the price of the usual krutikaagro.com type stuff amazon.in/Krutika-Natural-Jaggery-900gm-Pack/dp/B01DUJJ1RA
and the moment i quipped something about it being costly, the (snob) son of the shopkeeper started singing paeans of praise for how this is special.
This = it has some specific name.
But it was palm tree/fruit resin.. probably similar process as procuring taadi/neera, তাড়ি, നീര from the palm.
He said that his stock was probably the only one in the locality and of great quality.
As per him, nowadays (it was i 2029-2020l nobody wants to risk life to go up and down the tree, that too with rough edges.
So labour is costly and it comes down to this palm fruit/ resin jaggery being costly.
.
But i am 100% sure that decently packed and good quality palm tree jaggery ‘should’ be available in areas with decent Bengali diaspora or with Gurmeet gourmet shops dedicated to serving stuff for specific cuisines.

Chargefree wrote:

primarily available only in winters in bengal

Are you sure about this.??

Ya this was as per conversation with a provider dealing in this where he mentioned that sugar syrup is often used in patali gur preparation and fresh one is available in nov,dec, jan only (last pieces)

ZNZ wrote:

Are you @ Bangalore.?

Nope in north..

Any bengali dimers need guidance for.patali gur , if you can help please.dm 😃

Its very difficult to get genuine patali even in Bengal. The palm tree sap is very liquid and it needs below 10C temperature to solidify, which is now rare in Bangal winters. So they mostly add other additives to solidify it. The khejur gur (liquid variety) is still possible to obtain. But only if you know someone who actually prepares it and make him ensure that they do not add sugar or other additives. It is mainly produced in Bankura, Purulia and Midnapur.

Chargefree wrote:

primarily available only in winters in bengal

Are you sure about this.??

yes it is.
it is a dying traditional custom of Bengal. The skill is dying as fewer artisans are keeping it alive.
there was a film on this starring Amitabh Bacchan and Nutan, called Saudagar. it was not a commercial hit but one of the songs, or at least its remake, still remains a hit.

is it not from sugarcane ???
here in my city , once when i bunked college with my friends , randomly walking we went to some farms where they were making fresh Gur from sugarcane directly ,, and we took a lot of hot hot gur from them in just 5rs … i think they gave us around 300-400 gm gur that too in 5rs this story is not so old just 3-4 years back

পাটালি বাংলাতেই এখন বিরল জিনিস।।। it’s already rare in bengal too

panchabhut wrote:

yes it is.
it is a dying traditional custom of Bengal. The skill is dying as fewer artisans are keeping it alive.
there was a film on this starring Amitabh Bacchan and Nutan, called Saudagar. it was not a commercial hit but one of the songs, or at least its remake, still remains a hit.

But here in south (village and nearby) we get this(yes pure only) very much easily.! That is why I asked of surity!

Chargefree wrote:

But here in south (village and nearby) we get this(yes pure only) very much easily.! That is why I asked of surity!

are they made of the sap obtained from date palm trees? what exactly are they called locally? to my knowledge, the only similar jaggery is prepared in sri lanka, from a slightly different variety of tree.
in most other parts of India, such jaggery is made from sugarcane juice.

hackerboys wrote:

is it not from sugarcane ???
here in my city , once when i bunked college with my friends , randomly walking we went to some farms where they were making fresh Gur from sugarcane directly ,, and we took a lot of hot hot gur from them in just 5rs … i think they gave us around 300-400 gm gur that too in 5rs this story is not so old just 3-4 years back

sugarcane jaggery is the common form all over India. Date palm and also regular palm jaggery are special varieties of Bengal. the three are different.

panchabhut wrote:

are they made of the sap obtained from date palm trees? what exactly are they called locally? to my knowledge, the only similar jaggery is prepared in sri lanka, from a slightly different variety of tree.
in most other parts of India, such jaggery is made from sugarcane juice.

తాటి బెల్లం

It is prepared from palm wine (తాటి కల్లు tāṭi kallu)

Chargefree wrote:

తాటి బెల్లం

It is prepared from palm wine (తాటి కల్లు tāṭi kallu)

Tati Kallu is alcoholic. Khajur Gur/Patali is non-alcoholic sweet jaggery.
The equivalent of Tati Kallu in Bengal is called Tarri.

Garipipliya wrote:

sometime in late 2019 (or early 2020 perhaps) i happened to be around at https://www.google.com/maps/@22.7198369,75.9061349,17z
and
some ভদ্রলোক were carefully examining and thereafter negotiating with a small shopkeeper cum vegetable vendor..about some … my skin coloured (darkish brown) stuff they had.
.
It was of no particular shspe and the convo. too was lost upon me (it was in chaste Bengali🙂)..
.. so i stuck around and craned my neck to where rest of the stock was kept in a sack (on the floor).
.
Still unclear, i was further confused by a dark black patch on the otherwise brown pieces.
But soon saw all the 🪰flies ..fly away.. and the pristine brown’ness restored.
.
Not sure if my dumbness was dripping from my face, but the elderly father of the (snobbish) young man/shopkeeper.. clarified on his own to me.. that it is gudd/ jaggery.
.
Next i mustered courage to ask the gentleman (and his friend) ভদ্রলোক if they were regular shoppers in the area.
They nodded and went on to add details of how certain peculiar veggies or groceriesgroceries needed for Bengali culinary delights were only available in that locality (Bangali Chouraha/ Bengali Roundabout).
.
He educated me with pride, about some of the things.
One of which was that jaggery.. assumedly double the price of the usual krutikaagro.com type stuff amazon.in/Krutika-Natural-Jaggery-900gm-Pack/dp/B01DUJJ1RA
and the moment i quipped something about it being costly, the (snob) son of the shopkeeper started singing paeans of praise for how this is special.
This = it has some specific name.
But it was palm tree/fruit resin.. probably similar process as procuring taadi/neera, তাড়ি, നീര from the palm.
He said that his stock was probably the only one in the locality and of great quality.
As per him, nowadays (it was i 2029-2020l nobody wants to risk life to go up and down the tree, that too with rough edges.
So labour is costly and it comes down to this palm fruit/ resin jaggery being costly.
.
But i am 100% sure that decently packed and good quality palm tree jaggery ‘should’ be available in areas with decent Bengali diaspora or with Gurmeet gourmet shops dedicated to serving stuff for specific cuisines.

Ya wahi tha na who suggested for trimmer

panchabhut wrote:

Tati Kallu is alcoholic. This is non-alcoholic sweet jaggery.

But, the jaggery made is sweet (though not sweet as that from sugarcane)

Chargefree wrote:

But, the jaggery made is sweet (though not sweet as that from sugarcane)

then it would have to be made from the original sap and not the palm wine, as alcohol cannot be turned back to glucose. and the exact name also must be different as Tati Kallu is definitely country wine and not non-alcoholic jaggery. It could be similar to the srilankan variety.
Edit: One of my Tamil friend tells me that there is something similar to Bengali Patali Gur in Tamilnadu called Karupatti. Though he accepts that those also mostly contain additives to make them solid.

You can find it in haatt organised near malda city (west Bengal)

panchabhut wrote:

then it would have to be made from the original sap and not the palm wine, as alcohol cannot be turned back to glucose. and the exact name also must be different as Tati Kallu is definitely country wine and not non-alcoholic jaggery. It could be similar to the srilankan variety.
Edit: One of my Tamil friend tells me that there is something similar to Bengali Patali Gur in Tamilnadu called Karupatti. Though he accepts that those also mostly contain additives to make them solid.

Yeah there is palmyra/toddy palm jaggery in south (scientific name:
Borassus flabellifer ) which is available all time in the year..