Holy Jesus! Stevia.

[CharityAJO]

It's so sweet. I just put one packet into my coffee... this is insane. I need to go tone it down or something.

Anyway, impressed. I didn't think it would be sweet at all.

Wait... I'm sensing an aftertaste. Humph.

[rincaro]

It has an aftertaste to me too. I'm trying to switch to it. I think it works better if you spend a few days off of all things sugary... :lol: Yeah, like I'll ever do that! ;)

[PortableKitten]

Did it taste kind of bitter to you guys?

[renaissancesun]

Stevia is really handy to me but if I try to make things taste as sweet as I would with sugar, they taste odd. Too "saccharine" or something. I prefer the extracts becuase I don't like the green sort of taste that the leaf has in many things.

[MezzoEmi]

I wonder if I can find this at my health foods store...they don't carry it at HEB. :(

[Kreeli]

i keep saying i'm going to switch over to stevia completely but my ignorance stops me. i have so many questions. is the liquid extract as sweet as the powder? what about converting recipes from sugar- to stevia sweetened - what's the ratio? i'm also concerned about aftertaste. is it something you can get used to? does stevia dissolve in liquid/oil like sugar or do you have to find different techniques for baking and cooking?

answer me this, and i may make the switch in the new year.

[catswym]

so, maybe i'm a freak because i don't think stevia is super sweet.

i expected to be cuz that is what everyone was saying, but then i didn't think it was.

i like it. i think it does taste a bit different. i only have it in coffee or tea, and i dont notice an aftertaste but i don't with other things like saccharine either.

maybe i'm just not discriminating.

[veggiewriter]

I think it's sweeter because I only need to use one packet of Stevia in my cup of coffee rather than four packets of sugar (yikes!).

It has an aftertaste I don't like, though. Or maybe am just not used to.

Or, maybe it's not sweeter and I'm just trying to avoid the aftertaste and thus use less of it and pretend it's sweet enough. I don't know. All I know is one packet of Stevia must be better for me than four of cane sugar.

[sheshops2much]

It's really, really sweet, and I can always sense a bitter taste and a weird aftertaste. I'm perfectly happy with turbinado in my coffee...but more power to those who can tolerate it!

[missleigh]

I like it in my herbal teas, but not in much else. I haven't bothered to try and bake with it, but I have had baked goods made by others with stevia, and it always seemed to leave a bitter aftertaste. I like it fine in my teas, because I figure I probably eat enough sugar as it is without having more in my tea.

[dirtysole]

i don't know much but i do know this:

--stevia's sweetening power varies depending on what kind you are using (the pure steviocides (white one) or the powdered leaf as well as by brand.
--stevia replaces sweetness but not bulk so when baking with it be careful, i still haven't got this totally figured out.
--if it is bitter, use less. too much gives a bitter aftertaste.
-- oh, and that other aftertaste, i got used to it and don't notice it anymore and i used to REALLY hate it.

i use stevia where i would normally throw in sugar "for flavor" as opposed to sweetness. i also use it in coffee and tea. :bobo:

[Lelena]

I have been using it for about a year, but haven't switched over completely. It doesn't seem that sweet to me either. I don't care for it in coffee, but it's okay in herbal tea. Sometimes I just want sugar in my coffee. There is a slight after taste as well.

[Fenguin]

Stevia tastes great in teas, but good god is it expensive everywhere I've ever seen it.

[MezzoEmi]

So do you guys think that if I started using soycreamer in my coffee, I wouldn't need as much sweetener?

[Elena99]

Mezzo, I find with coffee (and especially tea) I can get away with having just vanilla soymilk in there. Otherwise, if I used ricemilk or non-vanilla soymilk, I'd use a little sweetner. I don't know what it is about the vanilla, but it's sweeter.

[MezzoEmi]

Thanks, Elena. I'm really trying to cut back on the sweeteners. :(

[remilard]

whole stevia is about 15 times sweeter than sugar, stevioside is 300 times sweeter so there is no question of whether or not stevia is sweeter. I'm assuming these "packets" are not entirely stevioside but have some filler (much like chemical sweetners) so that they can be used 1-1 as sugar. In this case the end product is, by design, about as sweet as sugar.