Is Your Stevia Real?
Today I want to expand a little on a post I did 6 months ago. In this video, featured below, I show you how to make your own pure stevia and liquid stevia. Making and growing your own stevia is very simple. You can save a lot of money by making your own stevia and take comfort in knowing that this is the “real” thing and not the fake stevia that is all over our markets today!
Since stevia has taken off in the health food markets, a lot of fake and un pure stevia has shown up on the shelves. A clear example would be Truvia made by the Coca Cola Company. It is made to taste like sugar and look like sugar to sell like sugar.
Stevia is not supposed to taste like sugar and a true stevia is actually green, not white. Stevia has a very sweet taste, yes, but if you use too much it can quickly become bitter.
Does Your Stevia Have Added “Hidden” Sugar?
A lot of stevia for sale today has added ingredients and hidden sugars added. Remember “ose” on the end of a word is usually another form of sugar. One of these ingredients that you see often in this so called pure stevia is dextrose! Stay away from this, it is sugar and there is nothing pure about it.
When purchasing stevia, make sure the ingredients are OLNY pure stevia (no artificial colors, flavors or added preservatives) then you would probably be okay to consume this.
How To Make Your Own Pure Stevia & Liquid Stevia
If you are wanting to make sure your stevia is pure, then try making it yourself. Growing stevia is super easy. You can pick up a stevia plant at your local nursery and I have also seen them at home improvement stores in their garden centers. Stevia plants have become very easy to find these days.
Stevia can be grown in pots, in landscapes, and in gardens. You can even grow stevia indoors. It requires very little maintenance. It can be harvested all summer long but is sweetest in the fall when the temperatures become cooler.
When your stevia is ready to harvest (you can view my stevia that is ready for harvest in the video below) then follow these simple steps to make your own pure stevia and liquid stevia.
- Harvest your stevia plant by cutting off the branches at the base of the plant.
- Wash the branches/leaves in clean filter water.
- Pick leaves off stevia plant, discard the stems, and dry the leaves for 12 hours in the sun.
- Once your leaves are dry, grind them in a food processor or coffee grinder to make pure stevia. I find that a coffee grinder makes for the finest powder and works very nicely.
- Note ~ homegrown stevia powder is not as sweet as store bought stevia (300 times sweeter than sugar). To cook with home grown stevia simply replace every 1 cup of sugar with 3-4 teaspoons of homegrown stevia.
- To make liquid stevia, dissolve 1/4 cup pure homegrown stevia powder with 1 cup hot filtered water. Stir and leave out at room temperature for 24 hours. After 24 hours strain the stevia out of the liquid and store the liquid stevia in the refrigerator.
That is it. It tastes amazing and you will never buy store bought stevia again. One plant usually supplies enough stevia to last me a year. Remember, a little goes a long way!! 🙂 So head on out and get yourself a stevia plant and try this for yourself. You won’t be disappointed!
How To Make Your Own Pure Stevia & Liquid Stevia ~ Part 2
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
- Leaves from a stevia plant
- 1/4 cup pure homegrown stevia
- 1 cup hot filtered water
Instructions
- Harvest your stevia plant by cutting off the branches at the base of the plant.
- Wash the branches/leaves in clean filter water.
- Pick leaves off stevia plant, discard the stems, and dry the leaves for 12 hours in the sun.
- Once your leaves are dry, grind them in a food processor or coffee grinder to make pure stevia. I find that a coffee grinder makes for the finest powder and works very nicely.
- Note ~ homegrown stevia powder is not as sweet as store bought stevia (300 times sweeter than sugar). To cook with home grown stevia simply replace every 1 cup of sugar with 3-4 teaspoons of homegrown stevia.
- To make liquid stevia, dissolve 1/4 cup pure homegrown stevia powder with 1 cup hot filtered water. Stir and leave out at room temperature for 24 hours. After 24 hours strain the stevia out of the liquid and store the liquid stevia in the refrigerator.
Share Your Thoughts
Have you grown your own stevia?
What are some of your favorite ways to use stevia?
Hurrah! In the end I got a website from where I can in fact obtain useful facts concerning my study and knowledge.
I got my first Stevia plant from a CSA that I just joined this year. I am definitely going to try making powdered Stevia. Right now, I use agave nectar or honey as a sweetener. Thanks so much for the tips. Was also happy to see that you are a fellow Wisconsin resident. 🙂
I just ground about a quarter cup and I will put it in hot water and wait for tomorrow and taste wish me luck my plant is two years old and very big and healthy
I just ground up a quarter cup and I’m putting it in hot water can’t wait to try it tomorrow
I tried to make my own liquid stevia and it tasted is not as sweet as white stevia powder that I bought on a store. Can you explain to me why it could happen?
The white Stevia powder is processed so only the sweet part of the green leaves is produced. Try using about five times as much of the green leaf to get the same amount of sweetness as the white powder.
I have been picking off the leaves as they get fairly large and not cutting the branches. Will l get more or less this way or will it end up being the same? I have been drying the leaves and grinding them in my coffee grinder and was thinking of making a liquid because my ground up leaves end up sinking to the bottom of my drink.
I usually just use the whole leaf and then brew it with my coffee or tea. If you make liquid, I would strain it.
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I appreciate these recipes. I am new to growing stevia and have just cut down what I have grown. If I dry it in the house, how much longer does it take?
Til it’s dry. No set time.
Loved the video. Now I’m off to dry my stevia and make a batch. Thanks!
So glad to have found this today! I wonder if you have found a way to winter over stevia plants. I live in Iowa, so similar to your zone. Glad you showed how to make the powder! Looked at some sites that used vodka for infusing or boiling in water to get out the flavor – like your methods much better! Thank you!
This is so Useful!!! Thank you! I got some plants this spring and was wondering what to do. I pulled about half the leaves earlier this summer (because I didn’t know any better) and made an extract in vodka- but it didn’t turn out As sweet as I expected. This explained all that 🙂 I’ll be harvesting the last of the plants in about two weeks- I’m looking forward to doing this!
In case anyone else reading this has never tried to grow their own and is on the fence I wanted to add the following. I hate the “stevia aftertaste” I had come to expect from Stevia based on grocery store brands. But they use the stem and roots and add fillers. The stem and roots are that awful aftertaste. So if you’re on the fence- I promise that both my 3yr old and I are elated with the live plants. In fact- she likes it a little too much… keeping her from eating the whole plant is a challenge 🙂 So it’s not as sweet- but it doesn’t have that horrendous “Stevia aftertaste”- which is really from using the wrong parts of the plant and then concentrating those parts down.
Thank you for this post!!
Thank you. I hate the aftertaste as well and am afraid my plant will taste bad…drying out the first batch now! I did taste a bitter aftertaste when eating some of the fresh leaves over the summer, hoping this is not the case after drying my fall harvest. It seemed that the younger leaves were less likely to be bitter…
Thanks for commenting on this issue.
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