Sri Lanka's toddy finds new life in cocktails and desserts

Young entrepreneurs in the country are turning the natural sap into craft cocktails and ice cream, and giving a boost to the ancient art of toddy tapping in the process

- Claire Turrell

Barefoot, toddy tapper Jayasena Mudiyanse scales a bamboo ladder that stretches up into the tree canopy, climbing with the agility and speed of someone half his age.

It is a journey that the 46-year-old makes thrice a day. A metal pot and a hooked knife dangle from his waistband, which he will use to collect a prized ingredient.

For more than 35 years, he has climbed over 15m for the sap of the kithul palm (caryota urens), which is used to make alcoholic toddy or heated over a wood fire until it caramelises into syrup or jaggery (sugar).

In the last few years, toddy tappers in Sri Lanka have received a boost in business, as young entrepreneurs are turning the natural sap into craft cocktails and ice cream.

In December 2025, the art of toddy tapping was placed on the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list.

Sri Lankan anthropologist Raveendra Withanachchi says the first record of toddy tapping is found in the Mahavamsa, a 5th-century epic poem detailing Sri Lanka’s history.

The kithul tree is surrounded with beliefs and rituals.

Its first flower is left for the deities, which ensures seeds for new trees. In traditional medicine, its sap is believed to aid the digestive system.

The tree has long been part of Sri Lankan culture and was a source of sugar before the introduction of farmed sugarcane during the Dutch occupation in the 17th century.

There were 40,000 toddy tappers in 2010 based on the last country-wide survey, but numbers have since dropped dramatically.