Palm sugar is made the same way that maple syrup is made by collecting and boiling the sap into sugar. At night, a bamboo container is placed below a cut palm flower. Throughout the morning, the sap will flow into the container. It is then collected before noon. By the afternoon, if it is not collected, it will turn into alcohol. The sap is boiled down to sugar. It has the maple sugar’s texture and color.

The word 'nam tann' or sugar in Thai literally means palm juice. The word 'peep' is the pail that palm sugar comes in.