Best natural sweetener

[hsorlando]

What do you think is the best vegan natural sweetener? There are so many. Off the top of my head I can think of organic raw sugar turbinado, agave nectar, and stevia. I like all three, but am trying not to have too much sugar, and wanted to see what other people used as a sweetener, and what their thoughts are on the price, and taste of them.

[Richard]

What is it that you want to sweeten?

[Jessifly]

I like agave best, I use is very sparingly so it doesn't seem too expensive to me, and it can be quite a bit expensive but sometimes I use [real] maple syrup (I like b grade)

[hsorlando]

It all depends on what I'm eating or drinking. I really just wanted to find out what other people liked best, because to me all three of these have their ups, and downs as sweeteners.

[Guest]

Agave wins hands down in terms of flavor and usefulness. Stevia is great for making stuff really sweet on the cheap(buy it in bulk...its really cheap that way). But at the same time I'm pretty addicted to molasses. I almost always use it in my cereal and I tend to use molasses on pancakes when I have them. I don't really like how much damage some farmers do to Maple trees...even some organic farmers....plus they have to reduce it so much...kind of wasteful...although I do love how it tastes.

[Laura]

I love agave nectar but if I don't want the extra calories or sugars then I stick to stevia. I thought it tasted a little bit strange at first, but it's grown on me. I use it a lot in my protein shakes.

[belleadonna]

I don't like stevia. I have tried it many times and can't get used to the taste. I haven't tried agave but I am going to give that a try. Sometimes I will used organic natural sugar. I don't eat much that needs sweetening though.

[beforewisdom]

I never see a need for sweeteners unless I occasionally bake.

 

What do all of you use sweeteners for?

[Im Your Man]

why not always using fruits as sweeteners ? make a fruit coulis to pour on all cakes and pastries or put whole fruits on top, put fruits in the blender as you do your shakes.

 

But for more powerful sweeteners, stevia may be interresting especially because there's no calories, I got used to the taste but at first found it strange.

 

I rarely eat pastries and cooked or raw sweet stuff, but if I want some vegan pancakes later, I guess I'm gonna put lots of maple syrup and berries on them! also, maple syrup added with lots of natural sugar make it a very thick syrup if you want something even more decadent!

 

I thought blackstrap molasse was a good food with lots of iron, until I've read that...

http://www.rawfoodexplained.com/junk-foods-molasses/

[Lean and Green]

my gripe with stevia is that it gets gritty in smoothies. if the smoothie is watery i always taste the grittiness. Better in prepping recipes with whole foods and such, deserts. The processed white stevia doesn't do that but i prefer it in raw form i.e. crushed leaf

 

Agave is wonderful. You can get dark agave if you want the taste of maple syrup and it has alot more minerals in it also or light for the taste of sugar. Alot of people don't know that about the dark agave or even that it's available.

 

Yacon syrup is just sooooo expensive but it tastes amazing.

[Im Your Man]

I've read some articles on a French site, tried to translate...

 

it says maple syrup may not always be vegan, when some companies use pork fat as an agent in the last stages of processing, eventhough now most of industries use veg. oil or synthesis agents.

 

Also, better stay away from regular commercial raffined cane sugar, to make it white, some companies may use black (burnt) cow bones as a filter. So better use natural brown cane sugar, or Turbinado sugar, or beets sugar, which don't need this kind of process.

 

To be absolutly sure, better use agave nectar.

 

But anyway, when you buy your food in trustful health store with competent sellers, you shouldn't have any problem.

 

facts : Americans are 5% of world population but represent 33% consumers of all the sugar in the world.

The common American eat 68 kg of sugar per year, that's like 1 soupspoon per hour, 24h/24 everyday of the year.

The use of sugar have caused a 36% increase of the U.S health costs.

[hsorlando]

I guess I should clarify a bit why I posted this. I try not to use too much raw sugar/ turbinado because of the calories, same thing goes for maple syrup, and I will look into this to make sure it is in fact vegan. Anyway that leaves me with other natural sweeteners. I find that agave works well with liquid types, like sweet tea, or herbal tea. And I have noticed an interesting thing about stevia. I find that if you get a good brand like Sweet Leaf it can taste alright. But if you get a store brand, like the Vitamin Shoppe brand it tastes different and not as good, kind of bitter. I use sweetener in my oatmeal, I suppose I could try to use just fruit, I'll see.

[Laura]

I have noticed an interesting thing about stevia. I find that if you get a good brand like Sweet Leaf it can taste alright. But if you get a store brand, like the Vitamin Shoppe brand it tastes different and not as good, kind of bitter. I use sweetener in my oatmeal, I suppose I could try to use just fruit, I'll see.

 

I just noticed the same thing. My NOW brand stevia was about to run out, so I bought a box of the Whole Foods store brand since it was $1.00 cheaper and neither listed anything but stevia as an ingredient. They both taste kind of weird, but in different ways. The NOW brand is sort of sweet and bitter at the same time, and the Whole Foods brand, though not bitter, really isn't sweet, either, and has a gritty texture.

[Guest]

I got 16oz of stevia on ebay and it ran be about $22 after shipping...I don't think you can beat that anywhere.