The world of sugar and sweeteners is a confusing one and we often find ourselves bombarded with lots of information about how certain ones are better for us and the ones to avoid. As a company, we chose to use Organic Crystallised Coconut Nectar in all our recipes because, for us, this is the one that we felt offered nutritional benefits as well as less negative effects on our bodies.

Refined sugar, your regular tabletop white granulated sugar, has been heavily processed and stripped of all its nutritional value leaving just the sugar.  When you eat this sugar enzymes break it down into glucose which is then released into your bloodstream where it is transported to different organs and muscles and used as energy. The release and storage of glucose is all regulated by our pancreas, but if we are consistently loading our body with sugar and creating sugar spikes in our bloodstream our pancreas is working overtime to regulate this and then has to pump glucose back out when we have a crash later in the day. This rise and fall of blood sugar can not only leave us feeling lethargic and tired but can also wreak havoc with our hormones as it can stress our adrenal glands and thyroid.

Raw Crystallised Coconut Nectar on the other hand is a natural sweetener that is pure and, most importantly, unrefined.  The coconut nectar comes from the blossom of one of the oldest living trees to produce flowers; a coconut palm tree. When the blossoms are mature the nectar is retrieved by making a small cut on the stalks of the flower and tapping the end of the stem to slowly release the sap. The sap or nectar, a lovely golden liquid similar to honey, is gently warmed for the water to evaporate leaving behind brown granules, which is the crystallised coconut nectar.

Coconut nectar if full of the vitamins and minerals you would find in coconut itself and has a low glycaemic index thanks to the fibre inulin which slows the absorption rate, meaning it slows the ‘sugar spike’ entering your bloodstream to a more gradual effect which provides a longer lasting energy.

All these benefits, plus the fact it adds a lovely flavour of our recipes, and we were sold! And one last thing to meet out high standards – organic and fairtrade certifications.