Sugar Substituted...

I have to admit that I do not normally take sugar or any other sweetener in my coffee most of the time. About the only time that I do sweeten my coffee is when I pour it over ice and a dash of milk. Normally when I do this I add a touch of stevia, a sugar subsitute made from the stevia plant. So this morning when I opened the Wall Street Journal I took particular note of an article they had about sugar substiutes.

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The main thread within the article was the competition that is being faced by Splends, Sweet-n-Low and Equal, by Truvia. Truvia is a sugar subsitute that using stevia and a few other ingredients that sound less than natural, to make it appear it like sugar and do well in liquids. Since the sweetener of Truvia is the stevia plant, the producers of the product market it as natural.

The 'natural' term that is being used to market the product has been very successful, and according to the article has moved Truvia into the second most bought sugar substitute only behind Splenda This is very impressive considering the product was just introduced in 2008.

However, favorite part of the article is the little side bar they had, or if you are viewing the online article it's at the bottom where they ask,But How Does it Taste in Coffee? The following is their taste results quote word for word from the article.

Truvia: Smeels like cupcake icing, has granular texture like sugar. Sweetness overpowers the coffee's flavor. We detect a 'Tab'-like aftertaste.

Splenda: No aroma with a subtle, acidic but not overly chemical taste. A little like soap water.

Equal: Super-concentrated sweetness, not in a good way. Leaves a metallic aftertaste.

Sweet-N-Low: Subtle sweetness that doesn't knock the edge off strong coffee. Aftertaste is like a copper pipe.

Sugar: About half the sweetness of the others with less aftertaste. Leaves coffee fflavor unsullied. Doesn't dissolve as quickly.

I have not had the opportunity to try Truvia out, but that could be because according to the article it gets taken from the coffee cart by people since it's the most expensive of all the sugar subsitutes. From the taste tests above it does sound like it's the best sugar substitute out there so it's no surprise.