What is the difference between palm sugar and regular sugar?

I found this recipe for Thai custard. It calls for palm sugar. What is special about it?

Palm sugar is brown and way sweeter. You don't have to use a lot in the recipes. Plus it gives a richer sweet taste.

Palm sugar was originally made from the sugary sap of the Palmyra palm or the date palm. Now it is also made from the sap of the sago and coconut palms and may be sold as "coconut sugar." The sugar is a golden brown paste, sold in tubes, blocks or tin cans. It may be light-colored or dark, soft and gooey or hard. As a lightly-processed product of cottage industry, it varies greatly from batch to batch.

Palm sugar

Palm sugar was originally made from the sugary sap of the Palmyra palm or the date palm. Now it is also made from the sap of the sago and coconut palms and may be sold as "coconut sugar." The sugar is a golden brown paste, sold in tubes, blocks or tin cans. It may be light-colored or dark, soft and gooey or hard. As a lightly-processed product of cottage industry, it varies greatly from batch to batch.

In Thai cuisine, palm and "coconut sugar" (nahm dtahn bpeep/buk and nahm dtahn maprao) are used interchangeably. However, it may be an important distinction for those concerned with frugivory that "coconut sugar" is in no way derived from the coconut fruit itself. Quoted in the linked thaifoodandtravel.com page below is the following clarification: "Although the names are used interchangeably, palm sugar and coconut sugar are not the same. One comes from the palmyra or sugar palm and the other from coconut palm, but both are produced from the sweet, watery sap that drips from cut flower buds."

In Indonesia, sugar made from the Borassus (Palmyra palm) is known as Gula Jawa ("Javanese sugar") or gula merah (red sugar) and it is used in Javanese cuisine.[citation needed]

Palm sugar is often used to sweeten savoury food to balance out the salty flavour of fish. Its primary use in Thai cuisine is in sweets and desserts, and somewhat less often in curries and sauces.

hope this helps. good luck.

PS. probabaly can be found in the ethinic cusine isle of the grocerey store.

Palm sugar was originally made from the sugary sap of the Palmyra palm or the date palm. Now it is also made from the sap of the sago and coconut palms and may be sold as "coconut sugar"
Palm sugar is often used to sweeten savoury food to balance out the salty flavour of fish. Its primary use in Thai cuisine as in sweets and desserts, and somewhat less often in curries and sauces.