WTF, my regular 7up I’m drinking now isn’t using anything foul, just good old corn syrup!
Pink all the way. No yellow, no blue, avoid sugar when possible.
Tried Stevia in tea once. Could not detect any sweetness at all, despite adding 3 packs. (1 didn’t work, add another…nope, so sweetness yet, one more…never mind.)
For me, pink stuff tastes like licking pennys.
Just a few drops of liquid yellow stuff does the trick. [no carbs…]
As a diabetic I need a sweetener other than sucrose. I used Splenda for the longest time as it was the lesser of the nasty tasting choices, although I was unhappy with the way it fizzed and popped when I added it to my coffee. Then I found stevia. I suppose we all taste things differently, but I love stevia and cannot tell the difference between stevia and white sugar. I do grow a plant or two just for the novelty of it as well as to introduce others to it, the leaves are so sweet it really surprises people. For the record my daughter finds it disgusting, but then again she has a wicked full hfcs Mountain Dew addiction.
Taste differs from person to person. It’s a chemical/physical/genetical thing. People do not appreciate this enough. Saying: “Splenda/Stevia tastes off to me” really conveys no other information then: “I have the genetical make-up so that that stuff tastes off to me. You might not.”.
If you choose to use sweeteners instead of sugars, it is good to realise that there are six main different chemical substances. Wikipedia page.
In the United States, six high-intensity sugar substitutes have been approved for use:
- aspartame,
- sucralose,
- neotame,
- acesulfame potassium (Ace-K),
- saccharin,
- advantame.
Currently under review of the FDA, or just having finished said FDA review, are two plant-based, high-intensity sweeteners:
- steviol glycosides obtained from stevia leaves (Stevia rebaudiana)
- extracts from Siraitia grosvenorii, also called Luo Han Guo or monk fruit.
A store-available brand of sweetener often uses a mix of these six chemicals, with one of them the chief ingredient. It is worth it to try all six and find which one works for you.
For me, it’s yellow > blue > pink, and never really tried the others because I’m perfectly happy with yellow. To my taste buds, blue is tolerable but not enjoyable, and pink is hideous, worse than no sweetener at all.
I’ve probably had Stevia at some point, because if you get a free-sample cup of coffee at Trader Joe’s, the sweetener choices are sugar and Stevia. (A good way to try Stevia, if you’re curious and there’s a TJ’s nearby.) I can’t remember my reaction if I did, so if I tried it, it couldn’t have been too offensive to my taste buds. But I’m happy with the yellow stuff, and I haven’t been in the market for an alternative.
ETA: Table here of which soft drinks use which sweeteners, and how much. Looks like not many sodas use just one kind of sweetener anymore.
This. I use maybe less than a half of a packet in my coffee, half a packet if I have cereal. Too much and it gives an off taste.
I’d rather use stevia than either of the fake sugars.
I prefer Splenda, though Equal is fine too. I don’t understand how Sweet N Low is still available with those two superior sweetners available. Whenever I taste Sweet N Low, I get a flashback to my Aunt’s constant supply of Tab…nasty stuff.
Splenda, to me, tastes the most like real sugar, and I actually prefer it to sugar in my coffee because it distributes well unlike sugar which always seems to be not sweet enough until you get to the bottom where its all waiting down there and then it’s too much.
I have tried all the sweeteners out there and really wanted one to be “the one,” but there isn’t one that just tastes sweet. They are either like sucking on a piece of tin foil or have the “minty” aftertaste, or something.
I use agave, honey or molasses for baking, etc. Otherwise, instead of trying to sweeten things without calories I have just been using very little or just doing without. It is amazing how easy it was. I have completely gotten used to things not being as sweet all the time and my enjoyment hasn’t suffered. I drink my coffee and tea either black or with just milk/cream.
I changed my habits because of a pre-diabetes diagnosis to decrease carbs. I never realized just how sweet most of our food is until I did this. I know everybody is different but is was really fairly easy for me to just kick sweetness altogether instead of trying to find a substitute that doesn’t suck.
I’ve been working for the past year to lower my calorie and carb intakes, and non-caloric sweeteners have been really helpful (as has been simply limiting sweetened beverages).
I find stevia a little odd, because it might be my favorite sweetener in foods engineered around it – both Zevia and Halo Top are extremely pleasant to me. But adding it on its own to anything, like coffee or tea or cereal…no thanks. There’s a flavor to it that immediately triggers a “this isn’t food, this is poison” reaction for me.
I like stevia, and find Zevia undrinkably disgusting.
Stevia can taste bitter, but it depends on what type or how much. Not my favourite. After weaning myself off Coke by forcing myself to drink diet soda for a month, I now find the regular stuff too sweet.
Not had all the Zenia flavours, and not overly impressed with the ones I tried. Diet Crush is better, but Diet Grape is hard to find. I like fast food places with the pop dispenser which has hundreds of combinations. My hometown is used by a lot of places to test new products, though, and they’re not as widely available as I would like.
I could have written almost the exact same thing. Right down to my daughter finding it disgusting, but her addiction is Pepsi.
Splenda and Stevia both dissolve in iced tea waaay better than real sugar.
I like stevia ok, but then again, I’m the guy who prefers Taster’s Choice to fresh ground.