On Your Mark, Get Set, Stevia!
Posted On August 7, 2008
Here it comes, the next new thing. Stevia has been locked out of the U.S. sweetener market but, perhaps in a battle of the titans, the soda industry has opened a path for its entry.
Over the next few days, I’ll be highlighting the science, nutritional and political, behind the new emergence of what some are calling “The Holy Grail” of artificial sweeteners.
For now, let’s just start with a definition:
Stevia is in the sunflower family (Asteraceae), and one of about 150 species of herbs and shrubs native to South and Central America. The species Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni itself is commonly known as sweetleaf, sweet leaf, sugarleaf, or just stevia and, as the name implies, is normally grown for its sweet leaves.
Taste charactaristics
As a sugar substitute, stevia’s taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar. If you have high concentrations of stevia, it will take on a bitter or licorice-like aftertaste. Some extraction methods can concentrate the sweetness up to 300 times that of sugar.
Hence, stevia has won attention with the rise in demand for low-carbohydrate, low-sugar food processed food products.
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