Stevia Extract: Learning to Like It

Almost two years ago, I “quit” coffee. {I put that in quotes because I am now able to drink it in moderation.} My reasons for doing so were twofold. First, I was completely addicted to caffeine. I couldn’t hardly function without it, and was drinking three very tall cups of it per day. If I skipped it for some reason, I had a horrendous headache. In the afternoons, the only alternative to a cup was a nap.

In a sentence, I was a slave.

My second reason was the sugar I was putting in my coffee. Now, I am not anti-sugar by any means. I have a thyroid condition, which means I have trouble maintaining my body temperature. A little sugar or carbs helps keep my body at a temperature that wards off disease {unlike my 97.8 average, at which I catch every bug under the sun}. But a little sugar goes a long ways. I can often get enough from a cup of milk, a smoothie at breakfast, or a piece of fruit. In addition to this, I felt like I couldn’t add social sugar on top of this, so I worried about dessert when we met with friends.

In quitting coffee, I found freedom from both of these problems.

So why did I go back? Well, quite frankly, I like the taste. I like the natural break in my day which a cup of coffee affords me {and I just couldn’t get tea to replace it in the mornings}. I can tell my children I’ll be ready to work again when my coffee is gone. It works nicely.

I was never anti-coffee. I was anti-coffee addiction. I don’t think that addiction has any place in a healthy Christian life. How can I become mature if I am enslaved?

Abstaining from coffee for over a year was enough to break the addiction. I can now skip my morning cup without a headache or other effect if I need or want to. I can enjoy one cup without “needing” more.

What remained was what to do about the sugar. I still didn’t like starting my day off with a teaspoon of sugar, even if I was buying sucanat most of the time.

For a while, I tried xylitol, only to find I am one of the people who cannot use much of it without stomach pain. I tried powdered stevia leaf and all I can say is: yuck! The bitter aftertaste was not for me.

But then I read about liquid stevia extract by Sweetleaf. Bloggers were claiming that it was the stevia for people who don’t like stevia. I checked the price, and decided I could afford to give it a try.

The first time I tried it, I went cold turkey: no sugar, all stevia. Big Mistake. Even though the extract is much less bitter than the powder, it is still a different quality of sweetness than sugar. My tastebuds rejected it!

Now, it is my habit to measure the sugar for my coffee in these little tiny silver spoons which Si inherited. I use four little spoonfulls, which works out to just over a teaspoon. I decided to try easing into it, and for three weeks, I used three little spoons, and three drops of stevia. So far, so good, so I went to two little spoons, and five drops of stevia. After three weeks of that, I went to one little spoon of sugar, and eight drops of stevia.

And then I stalled. I just wasn’t sure I could do all stevia. So for months, I have been drinking my morning coffee this way.

I’m writing this because today was the day I finally went all-stevia, with ten drops of stevia {in my 12 oz coffee cup, for those of you who are wondering}. And it was fine.

In this, I verified something that people will often tell you: tastebuds can be trained. Likewise, tastes can be acquired.

My children loved stevia from the outset, so in the evenings, when they like to have a bowl of yogurt, I have begun sweetening it with four or five drops of stevia instead of honey, so as to not serve sugar right before bed {even though, in general, I think a little sugar is good for children, too}.

Now that I know I like stevia, and that it sits well with everyone in our family {except my husband, strangely enough, who chooses xylitol every time he wants a sugar substitute}, I look forward to trying some of the flavors Sweetleaf offers: