Buying Organic Jaggery? Here Are A Few Things To Check Before Your Purchase!

Buying Organic Jaggery? Here Are A Few Things To Check Before Your Purchase!
With the cold temperatures affecting everyone in the country, we need to turn to healthy foods and ingredients that will warm us up from the inside. Once such an invaluable ingredient is a sweet derivative of sugarcane known as jaggery or gur. All the shops and vendors have lined up hordes of products claiming them to be organic jaggery. As a customer, most of them may look genuine to you, but are they really the purest form of organic jaggery? We’re sure that you’d want to buy only pure jaggery, which is why this blog will help you identify the signs of pure jaggery.

What is jaggery?

Jaggery or Gur is a sweetener and healthier alternative to white sugar. Conventionally it is made using sugarcane; however, there also exists organic jaggery produced using Palmyra, toddy, date palm, and coconuts.

Jaggery is a part of every Indian household and has several health benefits such as being a potent digestive. Being a rich source of vitamin C and iron, it is highly recommended for anemic people and menstruating women. Jaggery is used by many to improve blood circulation; this also helps to boost immunity and stay warm from within.

What makes organic jaggery better than regular jaggery?

Organic jaggery does not consist of additives such as artificial sweetening agents (saccharine). There is also no adulteration of color and materials like chalk to alter its texture and quality. Only ethically farmed and sourced sugarcane is used to make organic jaggery. Since sugarcane juice is slow boiled and then filtered to preserve all the nutrients and remove all impurities from the organic jaggery.

How to buy pure and organic jaggery?

Organic and top-quality jaggery has a distinct flavor profile, sweetness, texture, and color. It is not too sweet and hard enough to be clumped together but can soften easily in warmer temperatures. If you want to purchase organic gur to beat the winter chill and make absolutely decadent desserts, here are a few tips to find the genuine type:

Test the taste: The best way to know the authenticity of organic jaggery is to taste a piece of it from the vendor or package. High-quality organic gur tastes sweet, dense, and rich. Good quality organic jaggery does not taste salty. The salty taste comes from the presence or formation of mineral salts. Alternatively, older jaggery also tastes salty, so it is safe to skip the lot. If you find a bitterness to the sampled jaggery, the liquid may have over caramelized.

Impurities and crystals: While checking out the packages of jaggery, look out for any crystal formation. This can be an indicator of the jaggery being put through additional sweetening processes. Genuine organic jaggery will look lumpy but won’t have any crystals on it.

Colouring: Ideally, you’ll immediately be able to tell the purity of jaggery by looking at the color. Organic jaggery can range from a deep yellow ochre to brown. If you find that the jaggery at vendors is very yellow, there may have been some color added to give gur that shade.

Buy solidified jaggery: Skip out the powdered jaggery from marketplaces as this gives more room for adulteration. Instead, buy solid jaggery since all the impurities get filtered in the boiling phase of organic gur.

How to check the purity of the jaggery you’ve purchased?

If you’re buying organic jaggery from the marketplace, you may come across vendors that add chalk powder in the jaggery to increase the quantity. Such jaggery is loosely sold, costs less, and also looks pale or brittle. However, if you’ve already bought some jaggery and want to check for its purity, use a transparent bowl to dissolve a chunk of jaggery in warm water. If there is any trace of chalk powder in the mix, you will find it settled at the bottom of the bowl.

 Wrapping Up:

Jaggery can be used to make delicious sweet dishes like kheer, payasam, laddoos, and more. Additionally, they can also be used in kadha and herbal medication to cure a cold. Now that you know what to look for, we hope you’ll be able to easily spot pure organic jaggery in the market next time you are jaggery shopping!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Environmental Friendly and naturally Organic, Millets are the new-age global grain

Image
In recent years, millets have made a powerful comeback. Since the declaration of "2023 as an “International Year of Millets” , people across the globe are making conscious efforts to include millets in their diets.  Millets are small-sized, round-shaped grains belonging to the Panacea family. They are ancient grains and we can find evidence of millet consumption in the prehistoric era too. Millets come in various varieties such as little millet, Kodo millet, Finger millet, and foxtail millet, etc. India itself has around seven popular millet varieties . Millets are environment-friendly grains and require less water and pesticides to grow and survive. Increasing millet production and consumption can be a great way to promote sustainable agriculture and reduce the carbon footprint on the environment. This is one of the reasons for millet to be considered as the new-age global grain. Read on to know more about the environmental benefits of millet and its role in providing foo...
Read more

All you need to know about ready to cook millets.

Image
We are busy people. Our routine life is often occupied with multiple personal and professional obligations. The hectic routine often leads to frantic stress and as a result, we tend to look for ready to cook alternatives.    As per a recent Femina India survey report, 85% of millennial working women do not cook at home and find it hard to take out time for preparing homemade meals for their families.  Nuclear families and lack of efficient cooking skills are other factors that demand convenient and easy-to-cook food options.  Nowadays, modern consumers are looking for options that take less time to cook and require less or minimum effort. However, it does not mean that they are ready to compromise on the nutrition quotient. They want quick yet healthy homemade meals that suit their busy lifestyle and fulfill the body’s nutritional requirements too.  Considering this aspect, ready-to-cook millets seem like a great option to prepare quick and healthy m...
Read more

7 Millet dessert recipes for healthier Indulgence in 2023

Image
Desserts are the fairy tales of the kitchen—a happily-ever-after to supper.” - Terri Guillemets.  Of course, desserts are tasty treats. Having dessert after the main meal is a common food tradition in many parts of the world, including India.  Though eating desserts is a great way to complete a meal and to satisfy our sweet cravings, most of the typical desserts are made of unhealthy ingredients like Maida, white sugar, etc., and may not be a healthy option to include in our routine diet. But what if you could convert your dessert obsession into a healthier indulgence?  Yes, we are talking about millet desserts.  Including millet desserts in your diet is a great way to enjoy everyday dessert recipes with a healthy twist. We are sharing 7 amazing millet dessert recipes that are perfect to satisfy your sweet cravings. Millet Cake Millet cake is one of the best dessert recipes made with millet. For making millet cake, you can either use mixed millet flou...
Read more