Authentic Kithul: 100% Pure, No Added Cane Sugar
Most "kithul" treacle and jaggery sold online isn't pure. Because real kithul is scarce and labour-intensive to make, cheaper versions are quietly cut with cane sugar or glucose syrup — sometimes mostly sugar with a little kithul for colour and name. If you want the real thing, the only thing that matters is: is it 100% kithul, with nothing added? Ours is.
What is kithul?
Kithul is a traditional Sri Lankan sweetener made from the sap of the kithul palm (Caryota urens, the fishtail palm). The sap is tapped from the palm's flower and slowly boiled down — to a rich, dark syrup (kithul treacle, or kithul pani) or further, until it sets into solid blocks (kithul jaggery, or kithul hakuru). It has a deep, caramel-like flavour with gentle smoky, malty notes, and it grows and is made almost nowhere else in the world.
Why "pure" is the whole problem with kithul
Genuine kithul is scarce: the palm is tapped by hand, the sap is boiled for hours, and yields are small. That makes real kithul expensive to produce — which is exactly why the market is full of imitations.
What's often sold
"Kithul treacle/jaggery" that's mostly cane sugar or glucose syrup, with only a little real kithul for colour and the name — sold cheaply because it barely contains the real thing.
What we sell
100% pure kithul — one ingredient, kithul sap, with nothing added. Sourced farm-direct from Sri Lanka and made the traditional way.
How to tell pure kithul from a sugar-cut imitation
- Read the ingredients. Pure kithul lists one thing: kithul (kithul treacle / kithul sap). If you see "sugar," "cane sugar," "glucose syrup," or "invert syrup" in the ingredients, it's been cut.
- Mind the price. Real kithul is costly to make. A "kithul treacle" priced like ordinary syrup is almost certainly mostly sugar.
- Taste & aroma. Pure kithul has a deep, rounded caramel-and-malt flavour with a faint smokiness. A thin, one-note, purely-sweet taste points to added sugar.
- Look at it. Genuine treacle is dark amber and naturally varies a little batch to batch; jaggery is deep brown, not pale. Perfectly uniform, very pale product can signal heavy dilution.
Why we lead with purity, not marketing: the kithul market is full of "traditional" and "pure" claims on products that are half sugar. We'd rather tell you plainly that ours is 100% kithul with nothing added, and show you how to check any seller's — including ours. It's the same standard we hold across everything we sell.
Two forms of the same pure kithul
Kithul Treacle (syrup)
The pourable syrup — for curd & treacle, pancakes, hoppers, ice cream, drinks, and baking.
Shop kithul treacle →Kithul Jaggery (hakuru)
The solid blocks — grate or shave over food, or melt into tea, desserts, and cooking.
Shop kithul jaggery →Frequently asked questions
Is your kithul pure, or mixed with sugar?
100% pure kithul, with nothing added — one ingredient, kithul sap. A lot of cheaply sold "kithul" is cut with cane sugar or glucose syrup to lower the cost; ours is the genuine article.
How can I tell if a kithul product is real?
Check the ingredients for a single ingredient (kithul), be wary of prices that look too cheap for a scarce, hand-made product, and taste for the deep caramel-and-malt character. Added sugar shows up as a thin, one-note sweetness and a suspiciously low price.
What's the difference between kithul treacle and kithul jaggery?
They're the same pure kithul at two stages: treacle is the pourable syrup, and jaggery (kithul hakuru) is boiled further until it sets into solid blocks. Treacle is for drizzling; jaggery is grated or melted into food.
Is kithul vegan and gluten-free?
Yes — it's a single-ingredient plant syrup (kithul sap), naturally vegan and gluten-free, with no artificial additives.
Where does it come from?
Sri Lanka — kithul is tapped from the kithul palm and made almost nowhere else. Ours is sourced farm-direct and made the traditional way.
Taste real kithul
100% pure Ceylon kithul, farm-direct from Sri Lanka — nothing added.