The way date juice (khējur ras) is collected in India. I had an opportunity to have a look at it myself in an Indian village. Have a look at the video to get a sense of it yourself.
The Process
Date palm trees grow abundantly in Eastern India & Bangladesh. Date Juice or Khējur Ras (as locally called) is actually the date sap that emits in winter from the soft trunk of the top most part of the date tree.
The bark is saved everyday as done in case of rubber tree to collect rubber. A channel is curved to collect the sap that drains down into the earthen pots. These earthen ports are hung every day for the sap to get collected over night. Early morning before the sun raises, the pots are collected and replaced with new empty pots. It is a tedious work. One has to climb with the empty pot and exchange the pot with ones filled with sap. In order to get good grip on the long date trees; they are generally climbed bare foot. Over that it is a run against time as it has to be done before the sun is up and shining. Collecting the sap in this way is a age old practice and done like this since ancient days.
YouTube Video
Use
It as many uses. Starting from the moment it is collected, one can have it as it is in un-processed raw form in order to get the best arena of it. At this point it tastes mild sweet. This form of the juice is a delicacy as it’s shelf life is only few hours. So can be tested only at farm where it is grown.
As day advances, if it is left as it is without any processing and if one have it at that point he/she may be get a bit high and dizzy.
It’s long term use is when it is boiled to make it solid. This form can be stored for months increasing its shelf life. Now it is used as a sweetener equivalent to sugar but with a very different test and arena of it own. In this form it is used to have many types of sweet dishes in India & Bangladesh. Visit any sweet shop of these countries in winter to have a taste of sweets made with this.
