Sweeteners - Do they really make a difference?

[GinaDe]

Just out of curiosity..has anyone tried using stevia in place of artificial sweeteners or ethyl malitol?

 

[horton]

GinaDe.... your post reminded me of another one I read about... Agave Nectar.... anyone had any experience with Agave?
From checking the label on a bottle at the grocery, it looks to be a very potent, natural sweetener. Just curious what it would do in an atty or carto. How bad of a "gunk factor" would there be?

 

[Slickstick]

We use Ethyl Maltol crystals diluted in everclear, but only if it is asked for in the drop down box. Otherwise no sweetener is added. It is the same as the cotton candy flavoring. I never used splenda because many people cannot use it. Splenda does sound a little stronger though as the sweetener I make requires 2 drops per ml, and it gives mostly throat hit and a little harshness from the everclear. I happen to love EM. I have never tried the splenda.

 

[Spazmelda]

GinaDe.... your post reminded me of another one I read about... Agave Nectar.... anyone had any experience with Agave?
From checking the label on a bottle at the grocery, it looks to be a very potent, natural sweetener. Just curious what it would do in an atty or carto. How bad of a "gunk factor" would there be?

As you say, Agave nectar is not an artificial sweetener. It's essentially a mixture of glucose and fructose (extracted from agave). It would probably be like putting high fructose corn syrup in your juices as far as caramelization or junking up of the atty goes.

 

[donnah]

I use agave nectar in my coffee.. love it! It has a low glycemic index (won't make your blood sugar spike so much) I wouldn't use it in my juices though.. seems like it would gunk up the atty. I've heard this before on here from someone a few months ago.

 

[horton]

Agave is a great sweetener for coffee, tea and I've also used it a bit on ice cream and in malts (seems to do better in something hot, though). But, I'm afraid like Donnah said that is will gunk up the atty. I too seem to remember reading somewhere about it causing problems. I'll bet with all that sugar, it would make a mess of an atty. Sounded good at first, but don't think I'll be using it especially since I got hold of the sugar cream from DIYFS. Have not had any problems with it so far and I'm very happy with the sweetness it imparts.