What is Pandan?

Pandan (also known as screw-pine plant) is a fragrant leaves that are widely used over much of South East Asia and South Asia in both sweet and savoury dishes. In Sri Lanka, it’s called rampé and in Maldive it’s called ran’baa. It is a tropical plant from the genus Pandanus that is related to the lily family.

The pandan leaf is long and thin and has a variety of uses alongside food flavouring and colouring. The leaves can also be used as air-freshener. 

The leaves themselves have an extremely mild scent while growing on the plant, but once harvested and crushed or cut, the leaves release characteristic aroma similar to Vanilla but not same. Hence, the western culinary refers the Pandan as the Asian Vanilla. 

At Pandan Co, we use pandan leaves to give our cakes a subtle and unique natural flavour. It also means our cakes can have a beautiful distinct green natural colouring.

We are sure that once you taste pandan, you’ll be hooked!