Desserts are usually served as part of main meals, whereas sweets are consumed at tea times.
Many Sri Lankan desserts and sweets contain domestic spices, jaggery and kithul (Caryota urens) treacle.
Locally made treacle and jaggery are the most common sweeteners.Sri Lanka's most famous sweet as acknowledged by all Sri Lankan is kawum .
Commonly used ingredients across traditional Sri Lankan sweets are Rice flour, treacle and coconut milk.
Treacle is a food sweetening syrup made from the sap oozing from "tapped" blossoms of palm trees, particularly, Coconut (Cocos nusifera) or "Kithul" (Caryota urens).