3 ms·

Stevia (the plant) naturally has kind of a slight bitter-ish anise aftertaste in the background. Not something I mind personally, but I'm sure others do. Perso

Stevia (the plant) naturally has kind of a slight bitter-ish anise aftertaste in the background. Not something I mind personally, but I'm sure others do. Personally I don't know how much this taste is in the purified compounds themselves. I know many of the early "stevia packets" also exhibited these same sort of characteristics, but it seems to have lessened over time. (Then again, some of this may be due to reformulation. For instance, Truvia switched away from pure stevia-compounds to stevia-compounds-plus-erythritol several years ago if I recall.)

AceyMan 10y ago
You beat me to the punch on the mention of anise (licorice) aftertaste. IME, the liquid stevia preparations produce better results than any of the powder forms. I use it in my coffee exclusively and have tried 'em all. WRT the question, then, about stevia's relative lack of popularity: I think it comes from the aforementioned anise-like note, which seems to operate below a threshold in smaller amounts (such as to sweeten coffee), but at larger amounts (such as soda (pop)) this secondary flavor presents clearly. Since, for example, one 12oz (355ml) Coca-Cola has 39 grams of sugars (!), the amount of stevia required to equal this level of sweetness goes well into the range where the undesirable anise note becomes present. I've tried a couple of different stevia sodas and, yeah, they just aren't that great. (Since I rarely drink soda, when I do partake I usually go "full leaded," as they say. Life's too short, and all that...) That's just my working hypothesis as a stevia fan. YMMV. (Disclaimer: IANA chemist|biologist|nutrition scientist|&c).
- douche 10y ago
  I wonder if that would make it a good choice for something like Moxie, that already has a sort of licorice-y flavor from the gentian root it's flavored with.

3 ms·

Stevia (the plant) naturally has kind of a slight bitter-ish anise aftertaste in the background. Not something I mind personally, but I'm sure others do. Perso

by soundwave106 10y ago

AceyMan 10y ago
You beat me to the punch on the mention of anise (licorice) aftertaste. IME, the liquid stevia preparations produce better results than any of the powder forms. I use it in my coffee exclusively and have tried 'em all. WRT the question, then, about stevia's relative lack of popularity: I think it comes from the aforementioned anise-like note, which seems to operate below a threshold in smaller amounts (such as to sweeten coffee), but at larger amounts (such as soda (pop)) this secondary flavor presents clearly. Since, for example, one 12oz (355ml) Coca-Cola has 39 grams of sugars (!), the amount of stevia required to equal this level of sweetness goes well into the range where the undesirable anise note becomes present. I've tried a couple of different stevia sodas and, yeah, they just aren't that great. (Since I rarely drink soda, when I do partake I usually go "full leaded," as they say. Life's too short, and all that...) That's just my working hypothesis as a stevia fan. YMMV. (Disclaimer: IANA chemist|biologist|nutrition scientist|&c).
- douche 10y ago
  I wonder if that would make it a good choice for something like Moxie, that already has a sort of licorice-y flavor from the gentian root it's flavored with.