Review: Dixie Diners' Club Sugar Not!

For diabetics and the low carb dieter, sucralose has certainly emerged as the most versatile and dependable sugar alternative. Despite its versatility and reliability, because Splenda brand sucralose mixes poorly with chocolate and comes with higher carb bulking agents, diabetics and low carb dieters are always on the hunt for a better sweetener. In the advancement of that quest, Dixie Diners' Club "Sugar Not!" is the newest contender on the market.

Dixie Diners' Club says that "Sugar Not!" is a natural fruit concentrate sweetener that has zero calories and can be used in baking without leaving any hint of an aftertaste. A quick perusal of the ingredient list for "Sugar Not!" shows that it's made from low glycemic fructose, all-natural Lo Han fruit concentrate and silica. The product also boasts of no saccharin, no aspartame, and no chemicals.

So how does it stand up in actual use?

When I first opened the container, I noticed that Sugar Not! was slightly yellowish in color. There were actual granules in the mix, more like sugar than the powder that is sold under the Splenda brand name. One imagines that this would lend Sugar Not! an advantage over its competition when used for baking purposes, because it might add volume and bulk to the recipe. On the other hand, the Sugar Not! granules seemed to be mixed with a yellowish powder that was decidedly unappetizing.

Now it was time to put Dixie Diners' Club Sugar Not! to the test. I put a bit on the tip of my finger and touched it to my tongue. The first sensation was pure sweetness. Best of all, unlike Erythritol (a clean tasting, low glycemic, low calorie sugar alcohol), it was actually sweeter than sugar might be. Dixie Diners' Club warns on the package that a little Sugar Not! goes a long way, and that it's actually fifteen times sweeter than sugar. They even include a tiny scoop so that you don't get overzealous.

The problem was, I did detect an aftertaste. The lingering sensation after the sweetness had melted from my tongue was a metallic bitterness that was not unlike my experience with Stevia.

To see if mixing the product with a flavor might mask this taste, I added a bunch of Sugar Not! to unsweetened Kool-Aid blue lemonade. In hindsight, this flavor Kool-Aid may not have been the best choice, since the flavor "blue" is already pretty artificial. But certainly, the Sugar Not! did nothing good for the beverage. If anything, the artificiality was increased and the entire batch was wretched.

To try to isolate the qualities of the Sugar Not! I then added several packets of Sweet One (also known as acesulfame potassium) which I have used with great success in my kitchen. Combining artificial sweeteners generally produces a synergistic effect, resulting in a tastier end result. The mixture of Sugar Not! and Sweet One was no exception to this rule. The Kool-Aid was much better, but still basically undrinkable.

In truth, it pains me to give Sugar Not! a negative review for a couple of reasons. First, for the benefit of diabetics and low carb dieters, I want to encourage companies to take risks and develop new alternatives to sugar. Second, Dixie Diners' Club is a great little company that produces some of the best sugar free and low carb products on the market today. They deserve to have a best seller.

So, with that in mind, I would caution that everyone's taste buds are a little different.

Every sweetener promises that they have no after-taste and almost none of them come through with that promise, but with sucralose, acesulfame potassium, and blends like Diabetisweet, the aftertaste is so mild as not to be noticeable by the majority of diabetics and low carb dieters. Certainly, I'm not personally sensitive to any of these sweeteners, and do not notice any aftertaste at all from sugar alcohols like Erythritol.

But I do have a strong aversion to Stevia, aspartame, and saccharine. So if you find those sweeteners to be palatable, you might like Sugar Not! better than I did. For the sake of Dixie Diners' Club, I hope so!