Saturday, August 29, 2009

Which sweet for me?

THANK YOU readers for all of your sugar insight! Turns out the real deal is taking a back seat to all that's out there. Between Splenda, Truvia, PureVia, turbinado, agave, etc...I do wonder how much granular sugar sales have been affected.

Anyways, while my husband (who still won't read my blog...) was napping...I went grocery shopping. While I typically avoid the grocery store like the PLAGUE on Saturday afternoons, I was interested in picking up some of your suggested sugar "substitutes" (be them calorie-free or not). So, here's what I ended up with: PureVia, Truvia, agave nectar, and turbinado -- all per your recommendations! And here's my cart:


I also picked up dates based of Gina's recommendation. I'm hoping to make some old fashioned crock pot oatmeal with the dates. Also in there was ingredients for my taste test #2 at work this week with my co-workers. I digress...

When I got home, I figured "Why not try them all and compare!?" So I did. And I took notes.


The contestants...




The set-up


The results!


Here's what I came up with...

1. Truvia: silky texture, heavier than Splenda; slightly bitter at first; granular - not powdery, if melted on tongue...tastes like room temperature vanilla ice cream : )
2. turbinado: large, sweet granules; less bold than brown sugar; maple-y
3. agave nectar: prune/date flavored; medium viscosity syrup; no after-taste
4. PureVia: sweeter and more bitter than Truvia; similar in flavor to Sweet'n Low; bitterness subsides

I have to confess that as I was leaving the store with all my new, healthy sugar alternatives...Sonic (which SHARES the parking lot with the grocery store, in my defense!) was having Happy Hour -- half-priced fountain drinks and limeades for those of you up north. Sooooooo I might've...probably...got a diet cherry limeade. While I know I won't ever be fully aspartame-free, I do think it's important to decrease the bad and increase the good in our lives. And for me, that includes diet cherry limeade. I HAVE, however, abstained from diet soda for over 3 weeks! This is huge for me...even though my habit was never more than 12 ounces a day, on average.

Have a wonderful rest of your weekend and enjoy the last football-less Saturday of the year! WOOT!



5 comments:

  1. Yeah! You had a nice little sweetener party :) I am confused though, I thought Truvia and Purevia were the same, just marketed by different companies. Am I wrong?
    I've seen the signs for Sonic happy hour, and Nick and I will be going sometime soon, I've never been!

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  2. Truvia and PureVia are not marketed the same and they CERTAINLY do not taste the same to me. I will have to look into that : )

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  3. This reminds me of the 'tasting' sessions we used to have back in college and later in the hospital where I worked.
    I was very pro-stevia(because it was a not chemically prepared),before the FDA approval.Now I'm not so sure-what do you feel?

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  4. I LOVE Sonic... Can you recreate at home yet?

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  5. Very informative. I recently found Ideal (yet another sugar-sub) at my grocery store.
    BTW, my husband doesn't read my blog either :)

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