Stevia, Oh, How I Love Thee! NOW Food Stevia Review

I have been using Stevia for many years now and not till the last couple of years did I discover that Now Foods brand makes some.

I have found that Now Foods product are often so much cheaper that you might almost doubt their quality, before you try them.

But, I have found that everything I have bought made by NOW food is comparable to any of the higher priced products.

Stevia is used as a sweetener, but only allowed to be sold as a dietary supplement in the United States. It can replace sugar in many things and does not raise blood sugar levels.

I used to buy my Stevia at my local Health Food store for about $12, for the average 1 oz. size jar. After discovering Now foods brand Stevia I pay $6.03 cents at iherb.com. Yeah, now I can buy 2 for the same price as before!

If you have not bought Stevia before, $12 for 1 oz. might seem insane and the $6 might still seem high to you, for such a little amount. The thing about Stevia is that you only need a tiny amount to sweeten something. So, the small container will last for a long time. It is kinda like artificial sweeteners, like Equal, Sweet n Low, etc in the fact that they are all about 100 times sweeter than sugar. Except, Stevia comes from an herb plant, the Stevia plant, that grows in Asia and South America.

Ok, one thing that I absolutely love about the Now foods brand is that it comes with a little, tiny plastic spoon. Oh, you do not know how helpful it is. All these years of buying stevia and not one company thought of a tiny spoon like Now foods did.

You need so little in things, that it is so hard to measure anything right. If you put to much it will make your food or drink taste bitter. On this container and on other brands there is one side with shaker holes and the other side of the lid has a larger opening for spooning. All these years I have never used any of the openings on the lids. The shaker holes are always too big and shake out too much. The spoon side was always worthless because I never had anything that fit the opening. What I use to do to get the right amount was leave that safety Styrofoam, paperish thing in the lid and then pour a little in the lid and then lightly tap some stevia into whatever I was sweetening. It wasn't fun, but it was the only thing that worked, with only minimal over sweetening.

Now I have the tiny spoon. I will never go back to my old ways, even if you paid me. Well, uh, maybe if you paid me; it depends on the how much.

For things that I make often I now know the perfect measurement for my taste, because of the little spoon.

I love to make chocolate "milk." And, due to being raised making it ourselves instead of buying Nesquick, I can easily adapt it to sugar free.

I use 2 teaspoons of Cocoa Powder, 2 level scoops of Stevia, with the tiny spoon and I add them to about a cup of Rice, Soy, Almond, or whatever milk.

If I make a smoothie with fruit that is not too sweet and I want to enhance the sweetness, I add about a half to one level tiny scoop of Stevia and it works perfect.

Stevia life is so much better with the tiny scoop!

The container says that the tiny scoop measures 45mg. with a level scoop.

Ingredients:

Stevia Extract Powder (Stevia rebaudiana) (Leaf) (min. 80% Glucosylsteviosides)

Stevia is usually found in a powder or liquid, in an extract or whole form. The extract form is white and the the whole leaf form is green. The big difference between extract and whole, besides the fact that one is whole and one is extract, is you need to use more of the whole leaf powder to get the equivalent sweetness of with the extract. You still use a lot less compared with sugar, but a bit more than the extract.

This product is the extract powder form of Stevia.

If you have a recipe that needs sugar to succeed, you can cut part of the sugar and use some stevia which will add sweetness and cut down on the total sugar in the recipe.

An approximate equivalent that has helped me: 1/3 to 1/2 tsp. of Stevia Extract = 1 Cup of sugar.

When it come to replacing sugar completely in baking, you really have to experiment. I always replace some of the sugar and see how it comes out and keep reducing the sugar going by the results of the first batch. I actually made a batch of Gluten-free Banana bread with less than 1/4 cup of sugar, the rest was a few scoops of stevia.

All and all, I love this stevia and if the lower price doesn't sell you, buy it for the tiny spoon.