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?
OMG I’ve got seeds, but I haven’t planted them yet, due to its winter, or its supposed to be. I LOVE THIS!! Thank you so much. I love stevia, but have only found 1 that is actually organic and has no yucky after taste, its on Amazon, but the seller said they are not sure how much longer they will carry it, because everyone is complaining about it being too sweet. Its like seriously just don’t use so much! It has 12.6 % flavonoids in it. Its Enzo’s I love it. You can taste it out of the bag and it just tastes sweet. I’d still rather make my own, plus you said homegrown stevia is not as sweet , and this is 320 times sweeter than sugar, but its only shows stevia as the ingredients. I’m doing the keto diet so I read every label. Thank You thank you thank you of this. I will be planting my seeds in about a month or so.
★★★★★
Good for you Edith! Do know, growing stevia from seed is very challenging. It is super hard to get stevia to germinate. You may need a light and/or heating pad to accomplish germination. I got one of my seeds to germinate, so it can be done. Let us know how it turns out!
Humidity Box is the quickest way to germinate Stevia.
Stevia germinates well in humid climate.
I used a ‘closed clear plastic fruit tub with holes’ to germinate them and in a week many of them germinated.
Humidity box>>a closed clear plastic fruit tub with holes. Kept in partial shade.
Regards
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. We have stevia plant in our veggie gardens for 2 years now. It will die off during winter and grow back again during the summer time.
Going to harvest it in few weeks time (summer finishing up soon in Sydney, Australia) and make into powder form for storing.
★
Ooopss the 1 star is an error as have not try the recipe yet.
Good Day, how long should the liquid Stevia last in the fridge..i believe I had it in the fridge for almost 2 months when nner i noticed an off smell?
Thank you much
I believe it said 2 to 4 weeks
I live in zone 6 how could I save the plant through the winter? Or can they live outside with snow and come back in the spring?
Thanks for your recipes – both powder n liquid; will b making both soon as me darlin’s grow big enough. Interesting and confirming the obvious, IF I had used my grey cells b4 buying “Nusweet” (Australia) – supposedly made from 100% Stevia EXTRACT. Why bcause it is white, not green. DAh Then it became patently real to me n my body that there were other ingredients in Nusweet, as I was tripping to the dunny 15 times a day!. Culprit – maybe Maltitol – does it every time. So I stop using today & c if the thunder down under stops. Regards, Patrice
Excuse sme, this may sound completely irrelevant. But since Windows 10, the text on most of my screens is a light gray and I can hardly read it. This page is especially pale. So I was wondering, was there a choice made for gray text rather than black? Because gray text is impossible for aging eyes to see. Contrast seems to be the first thing to go.
I’ve seen complaints all over the place. Eventually, I just gave up. But I do want to know if it is a fluke of Windows 10 or a stylistic choice being made by browsers or websites, or if anyone can figure out why it has happened. No more black text. Just gray.
Awe-amazing
Hi, thanks for this instructional video on how to make stevia liquid, i followed it and made a cup and now stored in the fridge, my question is do you know how many carbs per drop have stevia has? Sorry im on keto diet now and im monitoring my carb intake, thanks!
How long does it last in the frig?
Great post here with awesome information. But I have a question about the exchange ratio for the liquid stevia versus sugar. I think you said 2-3 teaspoons of the powder was the substitute for 1 cup of sugar. What is the substitution equivalent or your recipe of liquid stevia to 1 cup of sugar?
Thank you for the helpful things you post here.
Respectfully,
dan
★★★★★
What is a good conversion “rule of thumb” for using homemade liquid stevia, specifically from this recipe? I have looked at a few conversion charts but they all used store bought brands and I know the make up of store bought and homemade are very different so I’m feeling at a loss.