Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Sun Crystals Natural Sweetener: The Best of Both Worlds

I recently strayed away from my usual stevia liquid drops. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may have come across my Does Stevia Taste Good? post where I discussed my distaste for stevia powder packets. But the FDA approval on part of the stevia leaf got me wondering how the conventional sugar section at Kroger was holding up. It turns out that there’s a bunch of stevia-inspired dry sweeteners on the shelves in that section now.

Curious, I bought a box of packets made by Sun Crystals. Each 5-calorie packet contains a mixture of stevia and pure cane sugar that is the sweetness equivalent of 2 teaspoons of regular sugar. Costing $3.99, it’s a fairly competitive price for 50 packets per box. (I got mine on sale for $3.59, or something like that—I lost the receipt.) Plus, the company donates one percent of their sales to 1% For The Planet, a non-profit organization dedicated to environmental causes. That just sweetens the deal for me (sorry for the lame pun, but you know your lovable-but-corny Food Meister had to go there, right?).

How’d the Sun Crystals packets fare? The sweetener’s tasty enough that I actually bought a second box. Good-bye liquid stevia. (At least, until I get [fill in the blank] and decide to buy a bottle of the wet stuff again.)

The only downside to the stevia and cane sugar packets is that one is not enough for my tea cup. I’m a 2-packet-per-cup person, but it’s probably just my zest for sweets in general. Still, 10 calories for 2 packets is better than the 60 calories found in straight sugar. And Food Meister’s waistline is a full supporter of low-calorie stevia products!

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