Most people seem to think all sugar is equal but I bought a bag of panela sugar yesterday and this stuff is amazing. I believe it's similar to the jaggery that is used in Indian cooking. It has this rich nutty taste about it that makes standard cane sugar seem one dimensional in comparison.
How this popular sweetener compares to brown and white sugars, including its taste and how to use it.
www.marthastewart.com
Sounds like
panela is the Mexican/Central American Spanish name for what is called
jaggery in India. The other
unrefined sugars that I'm aware of are maple sugar and palm sugar. Both of are very tasty. Palm sugars can be coconut but they are made from other palms too. My local Kroger/Albertson carry both maple and coconut sugars.
Because maple sugar comes from developed first world countries (US and Canada), it is bloody expensive. And because palm sugar comes from developing third-world countries (Indonesia, Thailand, Phillipines, and if you can find it, Malaysia, etc.), it can be dirt cheap. Also because palm sugar comes from developing third-world countries, it is often poorly labeled and don't say what kind of palm it comes from.