Here is a message I found in "The Wine Wizzard" Wine Maker:
Dear Wine Wizard,
Our local winemaker (at Galena Cellars) can detect potassium sorbate in wine, after it is used to prevent refermentation in sweetened-back wines. I’d like to substitute a non-fermentable sweetener for sucrose and am considering using stevia, a widely used sweetener in Japan. Although it is expensive, one needs only about 1/10 the amount of sugar. Do you know anyone who has experience with this, or can you suggest something else?
Ray Ruthenberg
Woodbine, Illinois
Wine Wizard replies: Indeed, stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) is a natural sugar substitute and one that is gaining in popularity with home winemakers. I have certainly heard of people using it with great success as it seems to dissolve instantly if used in its powdered form. It also remains stable in solution, doesn’t cause “off” flavors and, as far as I know, is a non-fermentable compound, so no yeast or bacteria will be able to eat it and cause fizziness or sediment in the bottle. It seems to be used in levels around 50–150 mg per 750-mL bottle, depending on the level of sweetness desired. In fact, I’ve heard of many home winemakers winning awards with their stevia-sweetened wines, so it’s worth a try! As it’s not fermentable, perhaps all of the folks above who have experienced secondary fermentations in the bottle should use stevia for sweetening rather than sugar,honey or wine conditioner. Another popular sweetener that's coming into its own as a home winemaking adjunct is sucralose, commercially known as Splenda. Have fun experimenting!
Stevia is an extraordinarily sweet herb. Stevia is 200-300 times sweeter than sugar. Stevia has a slight licorice-like flavor that most of us with a sweet tooth, and all the children we have ever met, love. For some people who only like the taste of real sugar stevia may take a little getting used to, but stevia has such important medicinal value that it is well worth learning to love.
Stevia is almost calorie-free, so weight watchers love stevia. It is ideal for children since it prevents cavities. Unlike sugar, stevia does not trigger a rise in blood sugar. You won't get a sudden burst of energy followed by fatigue and a need for another "fix." Most importantly for our purposes, stevia does not feed yeast or other microorganisms, and stevia increases energy and aids digestion by stimulating the pancreas.
Since artificial sweeteners are banned in Japan, the Japanese are the greatest consumers of stevia. Stevia, a member of the chrysanthemum family (closely related to tarragon and chamomile and distantly related to lettuce, artichokes, safflower oil, and sunflower seeds and oil), is totally safe. Stevia has been used for centuries by the Indians of South America where stevia grows wild.
Stevia is available in a number of forms, including a crude green stevia powder and a brownish stevia liquid extract, which has a strong, unpleasant, licorice-like taste. If you have trouble obtaining Steviva Brand white stevia extract, please contact us at 800.851.6314.
Working with the white stevia powder (extract) is difficult, so we usually recommend creating a liquid stevia concentrate from the white stevia powder. To make it, dissolve 1 tsp. white stevia powder into 3 Tbsp. filtered water. The white stevia powder may stick to the spoon but will soon dissolve. Pour this stevia concentrate into a small bottle with a dropper top and refrigerate it to increase its shelf life.
A tiny pinch of the white stevia powder is so potent that most people put in too much and find that it is just too sweet for them. That's why we recommend using the liquid and experimenting with a few drops at a time to find your own personal level of desired sweetness. One teaspoon of liquid working solution will approximately equal on cup of sugar.
More info on the subject:
SteviaSweetener - Stevia Liquid in a bottle - Stevia white powder
Brief History and safety of natural stevia Sweetener
Stevia has been used as a sweetening ingredient in foods and drinks by South American natives for many centuries, and there is no report of any plant toxicity to the consumers. Stevia sweetener has been added to a number of food products in Japan since the mid 1970s. No indications of any significant side effects have yet been reported after more than 20 years of use. Similarly, no reports of any adverse reactions to stevia have been reported in the United States. Donna (co-author of The Stevia Cookbook) and her family have been using stevia since 1990 without any health problems. I have used stevia daily in my morning tea, and to sweeten cocoa powder, since 1997 without any health problems. There are no indications at this point from any source that stevia has shown toxicity in humans.
Stevia-chewing-gum is also available.
Natural stevia sweetener has the following benefit:
Stevia is 300 times sweeter than regular sugar, with minimal aftertaste. Stevia has no calories. Stevia is suitable for diabetics and those with high blood pressure. Children can use stevia without health concerns. Stevia does not cause tooth cavities. Stevia is heat stable and thus could be used for cooking and baking. Stevia is a great alternative to synthetic sweeteners. Can be easily blended with other sweeteners, such as honey. Stevia is already widely and safely consumed in many countries around the world for decades. For more
stevia information.
Stevia Clear Liquid Extract 2 oz.
NuNaturals,
• Stevia liquid pure
• Dietary Supplement
NuNaturals uses an EXTRACT which has been laboratory tested and certified to contain a minimum 90% of the steviosides, the active ingredient of Stevia while retaining the other beneficial components. Because of this, you can be assured that this stevia liquid bottle has a true stevia extract and that it will be consistent in quality. This is a highly concentrated stevia liquid extract and should not be confused with less potent tinctures or extracts.
Stevia Clear Liquid Supplement Facts
Amount Per Milliliter
Stevia Extract 140 mg
Stevia rebaudiana (20:1)
Click Stevia Clear Liquid and see a complete list of products at Physician Formulas
Natural Stevia Sweetener Powder
3.5 oz (99.2 grams)
Planetary Formulas
Stevia white Powder Supplement Facts
Serving size: 1/8 teaspoon (316 mg)
Servings per Container: 313
Amount Per Serving:
Stevia Leaf - 316 mg*
Suggested Use: 1/8 teaspoon stevia white powder or as desired in cooking or baking.
Stevia powder: see below for stevia packets
Click on the Stevia clear liquid link above in blue
What is Stevia Sweetener?
Known by the official taxonomy name of
Stevia rebaudiana, stevia is a plant of the daisy family that grows naturally in South America. The plant, at its full maturity, reaches a height of close to three feet. The green leaves of this plant contain large amounts (up to 5 percent of dry weight) of stevioside, a sweetener estimated to be 300 times as sweet as table sugar.
How Does natural Stevia Sweetener Taste?
Stevia, of course, is very sweet, and it only has a minimal aftertaste. A study done in 1977 indicates that the quality of sweetness of stevia is preferable to that of aspartame or saccharin (Abe, 1977).
A study conducted in Japan in 1976 found that pure stevia extract was 300 times as sweet as sucrose (or table sugar) at 0.4 percent sucrose concentration, and 100 times sweeter when compared to a 10 percent concentration.
What's in Stevia Sweetener?
There are normally hundreds of chemicals present within any herbal product or extract. It's sometimes very difficult to identify every single component of an herb. Preliminary studies with stevia have shown that it contains certain chemicals that provide a sweet taste including stevioside, and rebaudioside A (Kinghorn, 1984). As mentioned earlier, stevioside makes up about five percent of the dry weight, while rebaudioside makes up two percent. Hence, rebaudioside A is found at a lower concentration than stevioside, but is apparently a more pleasant-tasting sweet substance (Crammer, 1987). Additionally, the oily part of stevia contains a number of sterols including stigmasterol (46 percent), beta-sitosterol (39 percent) and campesterol (13 percent) (D'Agostino, 1984). The compounds within stevia are very stable and can last for decades. They are resistant to heat and time.
The many faces of stevia sweetener - Whole leaf, Ppwder, Extract, or Liquid?
With stevia permitted on the market as a dietary supplement, and poised to become an extremely popular product, there are quite a variety of different forms and extracts being marketed (even if none of them can officially be called a sweetener). Which stevia sweetener products you want to use will probably depend on the amount of sweetness required by the recipe and the degree to which the particular recipe or beverage will benefit from the licorice-like taste that accompanies its less refined forms.
If you shop at a health food or grocery store, you will generally find the several forms of stevia from a number of different manufacturers. Each product may taste slightly different. Don't give up on stevia if you expect it to have the exact sweetness of sugar. It doesn't. However, when you consider the wonderful benefits it provides, you may accept its imperfections. For some people, appreciating stevia, just like wine, is an acquired taste.
Fresh leaves
This form of stevia sweetener is the herb in its most natural, unrefined state. It is possible to grow a stevia plant in your house or backyard (see the resources section for companies that sell stevia cuttings). Just one word of caution. If you own a cat, you may not have too many stevia leaves left on the plant. They love to chew on it.
For many centuries the Guarani Indians in South America used the leaves of stevia to sweeten their drinks. A leaf picked from a stevia plant and chewed will impart an extremely sweet taste sensation reminiscent of licorice that lasts for quite a while. In Bertoni's first official description of the stevia plant, he noted that "A fragment of the leaf suffices to keep the mouth sweet for an hour."
Dried Leaves
You can find the whole dried leaf of stevia sweetener in health food stores. For more of the flavor and sweet constituents of the stevia leaf to be released, drying and crushing are necessary. A dried leaf is considerably sweeter than a fresh one, and is the form of stevia used in brewing herbal tea. When added to herbal tea blends, amounts can be adjusted to provide more or less of a sweet taste. Finely powdered or pulverized stevia leaf can be found both in bulk form and in tea bags. Several companies add stevia in tea bags with other herbs but do not mention that the stevia is for sweetening purposes since they are not allowed by the FDA to do so. These companies will instead call the stevia a dietary supplement. Most of these products are currently found in health foods stores.
Stevia leaves have a greenish color and can be used as flavor enhancers or sweeteners in a wide variety of foods and beverages such as vegetables, coffee, applesauce, and hot cereals. However, in this form, expect stevia to have a more noticeable licorice-type aftertaste.
If you are interested in extracting the sweetening agents from the leaves, bring two cups of purified water to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and add one half ounce of crushed or powdered dried stevia leaves. Cover and boil for three minutes. Remove the covered pot from the heat and steep the herb until cool. Strain the water through a cheese cloth and refrigerate it in a covered container. The resulting liquid concentrate should be greenish black in color.
As a rule, about 10 percent of the leaves contain stevioside and rebaudioside, the actual sweet glycosides of stevia. Although stevia leaves contain various vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, the amounts consumed are generally so minimal that the nutritional value will be negligible.
Generally two to four leaves are sufficient to sweeten a cup of tea or coffee. For stevia to have a more practical application as a tea or sweetener, the leaves must be dried or put through an extraction process, which makes the sweet taste even more potent.
Green stevia sweetener powder
When the dried leaves are ground, they turn into a fine green powder which is generally about 10 to 20 times as sweet as sugar. You can convert this powder into syrup by dissolving 1 teaspoon of the powder into 2 cups of filtered or distilled water. Then simmer this down into a thicker syrup then put it in a small bottle and refrigerate it to increase its shelf life.
As a rule, the green powder is not very popular due to its aftertaste. However, it is widely available in health food stores. The majority of recipes call for stevia extract as opposed to the green powder so double-check your recipe and make sure you have the right form.
White stevia extract
This is the form most commonly used in Japan, and generally contains 85 to 95 percent of the sweet glycosides. In this form, it is close to 300 times sweeter than sugar. A teaspoon of this extract has sweetening power equivalent to 2 to 4 cups of sugar. The sugar-type stevia packets found in many Japanese restaurants are bulked up with another substance (such as maltodextrin) since a much smaller amount of the extract itself is needed. One company in the US has also started marketing stevia in small packets, similarly adding maltodextrin. Could stevia ever become so popular in the US that practically every restaurant in the country would offer packets of this sweetener alongside the pink packets of Sweet' N Low and blue packets of Equal?
There are hundreds of patents for stevia extraction processes existing around the world. Japan, itself, has over 150. Canadian researchers are hard at work to make a pure extraction process that they hope may completely eliminate the aftertaste. The type of extraction would influence the concentration of the various sweet glycosides, such as stevioside and rebaudioside, and could therefore influence its aftertaste. Thus, not all stevia powders are the same.
Since extracted white stevia powder is so intensely sweet, we recommend that it be mixed with water and the solution used by the drop. You can dissolve 1 teaspoon of the powder with 3 tablespoons of filtered or sterile water. Once mixed, this solution should be stored in the refrigerator. You can then use it whenever you need a splash of sweetening when cooking. Generally one teaspoonful of this liquid solution, also called a 'working solution,' is roughly equivalent to one cup of sugar.
Stevia Liquid concentrates
These come in two distinctly different forms. One is a black, syrupy concentrate and the other is clear.
· The black, syrup-like concentrate is made by boiling the dried leaves in water. Traditionally, the Guarani Indians thought this crude liquid had medicinal benefits. It has a delicious taste that adds to the flavor of many foods, particularly hot beverages. A dropper-style bottle is the most common way that this form of stevia is found in stores.
· The clear type of liquid concentrate is made by mixing a large amount of the white powder in distilled water or grain alcohol. Some of these liquid preparations contain other ingredients such as chrysanthemum flowers.
All types of liquid extract concentrates are available in health food stores or some retail outlets. They come in various sizes ranging from a third of an ounce to four ounce bottles. Generally a few drops of this concentrate is enough to sweeten a glass of tea, coffee or your favorite drink. With time, it's likely that stevia will appear on the shelves of grocery stores and pharmacies nationwide.
Natural Stevia Sweetener for diabetes
The availability of artificial sweeteners has been of enormous benefit to diabetics. However, there's always been a concern that over consumption of these synthetic sweeteners may cause some unknown harm to the body. Could stevia substitution be a good alternative in diabetics? We believe so. Stevia leaves have been used as herbal teas by diabetic patients in Asian countries. No side effects have been observed in these patients after many years of continued consumption (Suttajit, 1993). Furthermore, studies have shown that stevia sweetener can actually improve blood sugar levels.
In 1986, Brazilian researchers from the Universities of Maringa and Sao Paolo evaluated the role of stevia in blood sugar (Curi, 1986). Sixteen healthy volunteers were given extracts of 5 grams of stevia leaves every six hours for three days. The extracts from the leaves were prepared by immersing them in boiling water for 20 minutes. A glucose tolerance test (GTT) was performed before and after the administration of the extract and the results were compared to another group who did not receive the stevia extracts. During a GTT, patients are given a glass of water with glucose and their blood sugar levels are evaluated over the next few hours. Those who have a predisposition to diabetes will have a marked rise in blood sugar levels.
The volunteers on stevia sweetener were found to have significantly lower blood sugar levels after ingestion of stevia. This is a positive indication that stevia can potentially be beneficial to diabetics who substitute stevia in order to decrease their sugar consumption. Even if stevia by itself is not able to lower blood sugar levels, just the fact that a diabetic would consume less sugar is of significant importance in maintaining better blood sugar control.
If you're diabetic, chances are you consume a large amount of artificial sweeteners and you may be concerned about switching to stevia since long-term human studies have not been done with this herb. You may also be accustomed in your use of these artificial sweeteners and would not be willing to completely stop them. One option is to gradually use less of them while substituting stevia. For instance, you can initially use stevia in some of your drinks, like coffee or tea. After a few weeks, if your comfort level with stevia increases, you can gradually use more of the herbal extract. Over the next few weeks and months you can either switch completely to stevia, or you can continue using it in combination with artificial sweeteners. With time more research will become available on the safety of stevia and artificial sweeteners. Based on the results of these studies, you can determine which ones to continue using in a larger amount.
It's also quite possible that artificial sweeteners may be safe in low amounts, but problems could arise when they are used in excessive quantities. By partially or mostly substituting stevia, you can reduce any potential risk.
Sweet Teeth with No Cavities
Even a five-year old child knows that sugar causes tooth cavities. There are certain bacteria in our mouths, particularly
streptococci mutans, that ferment various sugars to produce acids. These in turn eat through the enamel of the tooth causing pockets or cavities. For a long time, scientists have searched to find alternative sweeteners that are not fermentable by bacteria and hence do not cause cavities. Artificial sweeteners have been helpful in this regard.
Natural Stevia Sweetener in Children
Candies, sodas, ice cream, pies, cakes... it's disturbing how many sweet products are ingested by children on a daily basis. All that sugar can lead to tooth cavities and obesity. We believe that partially substituting with stevia can help children satisfy their sweet tooth while decreasing the risks from excessive sugar intake.
If you're a parent, you can take advantage of the many recipes provided in the second half of this book to provide your children with tasty sweets that will satisfy their sweet teeth but not cause damage to the teeth. Obesity in children is a growing problem in this country and any method we have of helping children reduce their caloric intake will be greatly beneficial.
Last article:
*WHAT'S THE SCOOP ON ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS?*
*Can They Be Used To Sweeten Homemade Wines?*
The use of artificial sweeteners in wine making is a subject that
seems to be brought up more and more often these days. A week
hardly goes by without someone emailing, phoning or writing us
wanting to know if artificial sweeteners can be used to sweeten a
homemade wine, and if so, which ones are best. So, with this in
mind, here is the scoop on artificial sweeteners.
-- Why Use Artificial Sweeteners In Your Wine?
Some of you out there may be asking yourself why anyone would
want to subject their wines to artificial sweeteners when
plain-old sugar seems to sweeten the wine quite nicely. Well,
there are basically three camps of people that are interested:
1. Diabetics may want to for obvious reasons:
While we do not encourage diabetics to drink without the approval
of their physician, we do know that there are some diabetics
making and drinking their own wine. If they like their wines
sweet then artificial sweeteners would be the safest solution for
them.
2. Some want to because they are watching their calories or
carbs:
This may seem strange to some of you after considering that a
typical 4 oz glass of dry wine already has 80 to 90 calories, but
sweetening a wine with good-old table sugar can up the calorie
count significantly. One cup of sugar has a whopping 775
calories.
3. And, some are looking to sweeten their wines with a
non-fermentable source:
When you sweeten a wine at bottling time with something such as
cane sugar, honey or any other source of conventional sugar, it
is necessary to add a stabilizer at the same time to eliminate
the chance of re-fermentation in the bottle. The thinking here is
that if an artificial sweetener does not ferment then a
stabilizer will not have to be bothered with.
-- What Kind Of Artificial Sweeteners Are There?
First of all, any artificial sweetener you find on the market can
be used to sweeten a wine at the time of consumption. There's no
weird science going on just by adding some to a wine. They are
perfectly safe to add and will work with wine just as they do
with any other beverage.
It is when adding these artificial sweeteners before bottling
that some insight is helpful. With this in mind here is the
rundown on the most common artificial sweeteners.
--Aspartame: (Sold as: Equal, NutraSweet)
This is also the artificial sweetener that is used in most all of
the diet soda products on the U.S. market today.
Aspartame itself does not ferment, but you have to be careful
about what comes with it. If you get it in small packets--like
you find on a restaurant table--you will see that these
sweeteners come with both maltodextrin and dextrose for adding
bulk and to help the product flow better out of the packet. Bulk
is necessary to cut or dilute the aspartame simply because it is
roughly 200 times sweeter than table sugar. Straight aspartame
would be difficult to use.
The maltodextrin is only about 4% fermentable so it is of no real
issue, but the dextrose is another story; it is over 99%
fermentable. So, the little packets that have dextrose is
something we want to stay away from.
If you buy asparetame in its boxed or bulk form you will see that
it does not contain dextrose. It is cut only with maltodextrin.
So, if you want to use aspartame for sweetening your wines you
will want to purchase Equal or NutraSweet in their bulk forms to
avoid a fermentation in the bottle.
As you might suspect sweetening with aspartame is only marginal
in effect. While it does add a sweetness to a wine it does not
bring out the fruitiness in the wine like sugar will. But, the
biggest problem with aspartame is that it loses its sweetness
when put in acidic conditions such as wine. A decline in
sweetness is usually noticeable at about 3 months, and after a
year the sweetness is pretty much completely gone. This makes
aspartame a bad choice for wine unless you know you will be
drinking it fairly quickly.
--Saccharin: (Sold as: Sweet N' Low, Sugar Twin)
Saccharin is non-fermentable as well, and it is sold pretty much
the same way as aspartame. If you buy it in packets there is both
maltodextrin and dextrose, but if you buy it in bulk it contains
only the maltodextrin. So again, purchase it in bulk form to
eliminate any risk of re-fermentation in the bottles.
Beyond that there are two distinct differences between aspartame
and saccharin. The first may be obvious to you--maybe not--but
saccharin tastes horrible, even when compared to asparetame which
I would consider only marginal in flavor.
The second thing that makes saccharin different from asparetame
is that it does not lose its strength with time. It is very
stable in acidic conditions which gives it a distinct advantage
over asparetame with regard to storage.
--Sucralose: (Sold as: Splenda)
Again, sucralose is sold just like aspartame or saccharin, in
little packets with maltodextrin and fermentable dextrose or in
bulk from with only maltodextrin. So, stay away from the packets
and stick to the bulk form.
Sucralose has advantages over asparetame and saccharin and I
would consider it to be a superior product for sweetening wine
than either of them. Sucralose is made from sugar that has been
put through a process that alters its molecular structure in a
way that makes it approximately 600 times sweeter than real sugar
and impossible to be metabolized by humans or fermented by yeast.
It taste remarkably close to sugar and it brings out the
fruitiness in the same way real sugar does. It is very stable and
will not lose its sweetness when put in acidic condition such as
wine.
Because sucralose is made from real sugar there has been some
concern about the possibility of it being fermented by yeast.
This is not an issue. Sucralose has proven itself to be very
stable even over time and is no more likely to ferment than
asparetame or saccharin.
-- Stevia: (Sold as: Steevia, Sweetvia)
This is a sweetener that comes from a source that might be
considered slightly more natural. It is an extract from the
stevia rebaudiana plant found in South America, mostly in
Paraguay and Brazil. It can be found in health food stores in
both powdered and liquid extract form.
The reason I bring up this sweetener is more for warning than
anything else. While stevia will not ferment in its sold form,
when put in acidic conditions such as wine it will break down
into a fermentable form. Usually at about 2 months a fermentation
can be noticed in wines sweetened with stevia at bottling time.
If you plan on drinking your wine within a month or so, you might
be able to get away with using stevia, but we would recommend
against this process, especially when such other options are
available.
Others issues with stevia are if too much is used it can add an
anise to licorice type flavor to the wine, and in extreme cases a
metallic flavor can be present. These flavors also become more
predominant as the sweetness of the stevia is fermented away.
Also, as the stevia breaks down into a fermentable sugar it will
take the polish off a wine's clarity, causing a brilliant looking
wine to become more dull in appearance.
--Putting It All Together
While artificial sweeteners may have a place in your wine making
operation, please realize that nothing sweetens wine better than
the real thing. All of the above artificial sweeteners have
issues. Consider artificial sweeteners to be a second choice to
sugar. One that must be weighed in light of the benefits it will
bring to your wines in the way of: less calories, less sugar,
less carbohydrates or whatever it is you are keeping tabs on.
While in my opinion sucralose (Splenda) is the most appropriate
artificial sweetener to use in a wine for sweetening, feel free
to experiment on your own. Just be sure to do bench-testings with
a small sample of the wine first instead of potentially ruining
the entire batch. Use the bench-test sample to establish a dosage
that can later be applied to the rest of the batch.
As a final note, artificial sweeteners may not add body or
viscosity to the wine in the way you might expect. This only
helps to make the sweetness seem more phony. When cane sugar,
honey or other forms of glucose sugars are used to sweeten the
wine, significant body is added as well. While artificial
sweeteners in general try to add body with the maltodextrin they
are bulked with, this is almost always not enough to equal the
body brought by real sugar.
Edited by: SBRanch 
