Stevia is sweeter than sugar?

Posted by Random Terrain, 12 June 2009 · 62 views

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Stevia is supposed to be sweeter than sugar and have none of the harmful problems that sugar has. I went to the health food store the other day and tried packets of Stevia from a few different companies. Sweeter than sugar? Holy cow! Stevia is bitter! It tastes nasty! I can't believe anyone would say that it's sweeter than sugar! I was expecting super-sweet, not super-bitter. Horrible stuff.

You might have read about the FDA Stevia/Aspartame controversy, but although the government is corrupt, I guess we didn't miss out on much if Stevia tastes nasty.

Random Terrain
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EricBall
Jun 12 2009 10:27 AM

IIRC some of the other artificial sweeteners (like saccharine) have a pretty harsh taste if eaten raw. Maybe it's a matter of dosage? It's supposed to be 300 times sweeter, so you need to make sure you only taste the smallest amount or the pleasure turns to pain. Try putting just a little bit in a glass of water.

Hmm.. Wikipedia mentions "some of its extracts may have a bitter or licorice-like aftertaste at high concentrations", so maybe it's what you got or how it was processed.

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supercat
Jun 12 2009 5:25 PM

EricBall, on Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:27 AM, said:

It's supposed to be 300 times sweeter, so you need to make sure you only taste the smallest amount or the pleasure turns to pain.

I would second that recommendation. There's only a certain level of sweetness one can perceive; doubling the concentration of a sweetener beyond that point will double the other tastes without improving sweetness.