Has anyone tried stevia for sweetening?!
Question:
Has anyone tried stevia for sweetening?
How is it, compared to sugar? More sweet? Less sweet?
Answers:
Stevia extract powder is about 200x sweeter than sugar. The green plant has been used in Asia for over 2000 years and is about 10x sweeter than sugar.
As an extract, it is way easy to use too much so the manufacturers have started cutting it and putting it in packets supposed to be roughly equivalent to 1 teaspoon of table sugar. To my taste, it is more like a tablespoon. If you get it too strong, you will really notice the bitter aftertaste. (Remember saccharine?)
One of the really remarkable things about stevia is that it doesn't turn into some kind of dangerous chemical goo when you cook or heat it, unlike some of the manufactured things that have been put on us by the diet food industry.
My personal preference (I'm not diabetic) is to use liquid Stevia extract in hot things, like tea, and the powder in cold things, like breakfast cereal and iced tea. (The liquid extract has alcohol in it and the heat makes the funny smell dissipate.)
I make a 2 quart pitcher of iced tea with 1/4 of 1/4 teaspoon pure extract powder and about 1 tablespoon of real cane sugar and no one yet has noticed the switch. If I use only Stevia, however, they will notice.
See the link below for a pretty comprehensive article by David Richard.