Sweetened With Stevia

Hello!

Today I want to tell about stevia because I know there are many people who haven't heard about it yet. That's partly because stevia wasn't approved to be sold for human consumption in EU until December 2011. In USA the FDA had it approved sometime ago and in Asia it has been used for many years. I'm not sure why it took so long for the officials to approve stevia because the original tribes in South America have been using it for centuries. I guess the sugar manufactures weren't glad about another sweetener coming to the market, and they lobbied against it. 

What is stevia?

-name stevia refers to the sweetener made out of stevia plant or the stevia plant itself (Stevia rebaudiana)
-also known as sweet leaf or sugar leaf
-native to subtropical and tropical regions from western North America to South America
-is 300 times sweeter than sugar
-is stable to heat, making it safe for cooking
-is is calorie and carbohydrate free
-it doesn’t promote dental caries like sugar
-stevia plant is made into a powder or liquid for sweetening purposes



Couple days ago I bought this Canderel Green stevia sweetener from the regular grocery store. I just wanted to see how it tastes. I have had other stevia products before but I had to get them from abroad. This was the first time buying stevia from Finland.

This stevia tastes like any other stevia; very sweet and a hint of licorice in the after taste.

I actually tried baking with stevia the other day. I made Finnish style cinnamon rolls, and I replaced all the sugar with stevia. The rolls turned out great and very fluffy! Only down side was the little hint of licorice after taste. I guess next time I'll replace only half of the sugar with stevia, and see how that tastes like.

Maybe stevia isn't the best when baking but stevia is great to use in a cup of tea. You only need a little bit of the stevia powder to make the cup taste a whole lot sweeter. I also use stevia to sweeten my smoothies. So, thumbs up for stevia from Riittalicious!

This stevia product I'm very happy about! Finnish soft drink maker Hartwall launched their own stevia sweetened citrus soda pop Jaffa super. It tastes like regular Jaffa but it has less calories and it is not bad for my teeth. Awesome! I'm already hooked... I know soft drinks aren't good for you but at least this might be a little better choice than some others.

Hartwall also has another flavor, blood orange, that is sweetened with stevia but I like this citrus one better. Then they also have couple different sparkling waters that I haven't tasted yet.

That's it about stevia. Now I only hope that CocaCola will start selling their stevia sweetened sodas in Finland. Or that Hartawall makes their own stevia cola. That would be great too.

I hope everybody's weekend is sweet!