For those of you watching your weight or monitoring the number of calories your eating, you will have probably have already heard of Truvia. I tend to avoid sweeteners as normally they are artificial, however Truvia is a natural sweetener made from a plant called Stevia. It was this fact that made me decide to put Truvia to the taste test.
What is Stevia?
Stevia, a plant with sweet edible leaves native to South America, has been used for centuries by indigenous people to sweeten food and beverages. The sweet components found in the stevia leaf are up to 200 times sweeter than sugar and have no caloric content.
One thing that I’ve not had explained to me, is why is Truvia white. If Stevia is a plant, and plant leaves are very green, why is Truvia pure white? I can only assume this is because it has been through some kind of refinement process, which to me makes it not quite as natural. But I guess that’s consumer driven, I mean who would buy a green coloured sweetener! I was curious if there would be a smell to the sweetener, so when I opened the jar I took a big sniff. I thought it had a slight smell of maple syrup, but according to my sister I was just imagining it.
One thing that I’ve not had explained to me, is why is Truvia white. If Stevia is a plant, and plant leaves are very green, why is Truvia pure white? I can only assume this is because it has been through some kind of refinement process, which to me makes it not quite as natural. But I guess that’s consumer driven, I mean who would buy a green coloured sweetener! I was curious if there would be a smell to the sweetener, so when I opened the jar I took a big sniff. I thought it had a slight smell of maple syrup, but according to my sister I was just imagining it.
I put Truvia to the baking test and made some Chocolate Chip Cookies, using a recipe you will find on the Truvia website.
I must admit I found this quite an intriguing recipe with its use of rolled oats in the Chocolate Chip Cookies. I’m not sure if this really added to the taste or texture of the cookies. These were soft cookies and I prefer a crunchy crispy biscuit, but that’s just me. Each Chocolate Chip Cookie contains 160 calories, it also contains 50% less sugar than a sugar-sweentened cookie.
I also made some custard and mini cheesecakes using Truvia – in my opinion there really was no taste difference when using Truvia or sugar. I don’t take sugar in my tea, so I am not able to put to the hot drink test.
If you are a big artificial sweetener user you may consider switching to a natural sweetener. You can find lots of other recipe ideas on the Truvia website.
I was sent a sample of Truvia for the purposes of this review.