New Product Review: Truvia

I probably eat more ice cream, cake and cookies than the average person. In fact, I know I do. So in an attempt to cut down on my sugar intake, I decided to try Truvia, the newest natural sweetener made from the stevia plant, which is native to South America.

I'm not a fan of Equal or Sweet n' Low, but I do like Splenda. The price of Truvia was a little cheaper than Splenda, at $3.49 for a 4.9 oz box, so I was anxious to give it a try.

I have a recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies that I've made with Splenda that tastes just as good as it does with 'real' sugar. I substituted a batch of these cookies with Truvia. They smelled great when I took them out of the oven, so I was totally prepared to enjoy them. After all, I have never met a cookie I didn't like; that is, until now. One taste of the cookie, I had to throw it out.

I figured that maybe Truvia just isn't meant for baking, so later I added a packet of it to my cold cereal. This was a bad idea also. I was left with a medicine-like after taste. And the offensive taste stayed with me for hours. I wasn't about to try it sprinkled on fruit as the package suggests.

I asked my son to try it in his coffee, as I don't add sweetener to mine. He tried it and just after one sip he poured it down the sink drain. But to be fair, this was the first time he has tried any sweetener other than granulated sugar in his coffee.

The print on the box reads, "Your whole family will enjoy the clean sweet taste of Truvia natural sweetener." Sorry, not this family!