Stevia is a type of super sweet herb that is native to Central and South America.  It is up to 300 times sweeter than sugar at its peak, and is used as a supplement and a sweetener.

 

Strangely, even though it is powerfully sweet, it has almost no calories and no carbohydrates.  It is safer than any artificial sweetener, and as a natural sweetener, it is still safer than any refined sugar.  So it is the perfect replacement for artificial sweeteners, and booster for natural sweeteners.  The problem is that most people outside of South and Central America have no idea how to cook with it.  Worse, people in those regions also often forget as native cultures are being overshadowed.

 

There are many pages on the net about using stevia, but I get the idea that many people who post about it don't really use it regularly.  When you do, you learn a few things that I'm going to share here.  This is important because using stevia will not only make you healthier.  It will save you money.

 

Stevia does not have the same "mouth feel" as sugar.  It has no carbohydrates, so the sweetness taste will hit somewhat like when you smell cloves or cherries.  It is a kind of delayed reaction that works very well with other flavors that have a sweet smell or aftertaste, but not so well with flavors that don't. It's sweetness transmits as more of a smell than a taste at first, and then turns out to be a taste the longer it sits on your tongue.

 

This is why Coca Cola company did a very good thing to put a stevia derived sweetener in Zero.  The flavor of cola nuts is already sweet smelling, so one can't tell the difference between Zero and Classic.  The problem is that they still also use aspartame.  So Coca Cola Zero is no longer on my list of monthly indulgences.  They can do better, and they should.  I and many other people would be much happier with a lower calorie drink that used ribbon cane syrup or palm syrup and stevia than we would with zero calorie poison.

 

When using stevia, a good thing to know is that stevia herb should have a bit of heat to get it going.  Putting the cold powder in a cold drink is not going to work as well as steeping the herb in hot water, and using the liquid.  So in cooked recipes or hot teas, stevia powder works great.  In a cold drink, you should use a stevia tea.

 

 

You'll need an individual French press.  They're usually sold in coffee shops or places that sell coffee supplies for real coffee drinkers.  It usually holds 2 cups of liquid.

 

Put 1/8 cup plus 2 tablespoons of stevia powder, or herb packed down tightly in the measuring cup, into the French press.  Then pour in the hot water.  Put the cap with the strainer on top of this and push it down just enough to submerge the herb.  Then let this set for at least 2-4 hours. Push the strainer down, and the liquid above it, you can use in recipes on this site.

 

So when a recipe here calls for stevia liquid, this is what I mean, not a commerical version.

 

 

Because of stevia's delayed but very powerful sweetness reaction, and because it lacks any carbohydrates, it isn't a good idea to use it to replace all sugar in most recipes.  It is however, a perfect booster for natural sugars.  Instead of using a cup of honey or fruit paste in many recipes, you can use half plus a teaspoon of stevia powder.  This is a money saving idea because in some places, honey and other natural sugars are more expensive than refined sugar.  Stevia cuts the cost difference to minimal because a kilogram of Stevia, though it may costs you $50 is like getting 200-300 kilos of sugar, which would cost you more than $250.

 

 

It will be difficult to wean your family off of refined sugars if you do it all of a sudden.  One good trick is to cut sugar with stevia, and make stevia boosted versions of their favorite things.  I'll get deeper into that in the upcoming Cooking Slim Kids section of CookingSlim.org.