Tips for buying Stevia Sweetener Products

You can find a variety of Stevia sweeteners in supermarkets. Due to the different types of products, there is no generally valid answer to the question of the right use. Here we give you some helpful tips on what to look for when buying Stevia.

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There are a wide range of liquid Stevia concentrates and Stevia liquid sweeteners. Unfortunately, products that you can buy in supermarkets or drugstores very often contain added fructose, dextrose or even flavourings.

When buying, pay attention to the ingredients. A good Stevia liquid sweetener product should not have the ingredients mentioned above.

When buying on the internet, there are a lot of sellers on platforms like Ebay or Amazon. Especially with these offers, you should not be blinded by the price. This is because many Stevia products are not subject to approval by the European Food Safety Authority efsa. For consumers, these offers are often very difficult to recognise. Moreover, they often come from the Far East.

Are the exact ingredients listed? Very often they are not declared correctly! Liquid sweeteners always need a preservative. Without it, sweeteners are the ideal breeding ground for germs, bacteria and viruses.

Take a close look at the bottle caps! Why? Do not buy liquid sweeteners if the bottle does not have a tamper-evident cap!

What is a tamper-evident cap? A tamper-evident closure is often also called a guarantee closure or first-opening guarantee. Most people know it from beverage bottles. The closure rings that have to be torn open before the bottle cap can be turned. It is a breakable plastic ring on the bottle. Only when the bottle cap is turned for the first time does the lower locking ring come off the cap.

Tamper-evident closures are used to indicate the integrity, tampering or breakage of a package.

Reputable suppliers do not offer products without tamper-evident closures. They show you that the products are manufactured according to strict HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) guidelines and IFS Food Standard, a standard recognised by the GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) for auditing food manufacturers.

The most important thing to know first: There are no Stevia sweetener tablets that are 100% Stevia. Do not be fooled by such offers. The maximum value is usually between 12% and 25%. For the production of sweetener tablets, you always need so-called carrier and tableting aids. Without these, the production of tablets is not possible.

The most commonly used excipients are: Sorbitol, lactose (milk sugar), carboxymethyl cellulose, isomaltose, erythritol, sodium hydrogen carbonate or dextrose.

Addition of flavours: Stevia tablets are often made with flavours, especially vanilla flavours. The addition can often be an indicator that high-quality Stevia extracts are not used in the production process. These are primarily used to mask the taste, sweetness.

These are not sold in supermarkets or drugstores. In individual cases, they are available in organic shops. However, this is often only the lowest quality (usually only Rebaudioside-A 40% or even only 25%<7span>). These extracts are often overpriced.

You can find good pure Stevia extracts on the internet. However, you should look carefully at the suppliers. Many of them do not specialise in Stevia extracts and are only interested in making a quick buck, such as media or advertising agencies.

Buy Stevia only from suppliers who specialise in Stevia. Make sure that the exact specification/quality is stated for pure Stevia extracts. This is the only way to compare products. The purity of steviol glycosides must be at least 95%. For the higher quality Stevia extract Rebaudiosid-A, you should only buy qualities of over 60% because of the taste.

Look at the seller’s imprint and whether a number is given. So that you can contact the seller directly if you have any questions.

Stevia extract is particularly pure is up to 450 times sweeter than sugar. Therefore, you should always dose this type of Stevia carefully, rather sweetening gradually to avoid making food inedible.

Stevia granules are the crystalline form of the natural sweetener. It is a mixture of erythritol and Stevia and is also called spoonabe sweetener. It is particularly heat-resistant and for this reason can also be used for cooking or baking. Stevia granules completely replace the sugar in the baking recipe, so it can be used 1:1 as in the original recipe.

Caution: There are also spoonable sweeteners with maltodextrin! These products consist of more than 95% maltodextrin and are cheap in relation to the crystalline spoonable sweetener Stevia. Per 100 grams of maltodextrin there are 95 grams of carbohydrates, which corresponds to about 380 kilocalories (kcal). Look at the fine print of the ingredients list to see which ingredients are used.

Which form of Stevia is better or worse depends solely on how you use it. Stevia sweetener tablets, for example, are ideal for coffee, tea and other hot drinks. Stevia extracts or the crystalline spoonable sweetener Stevia is mainly suitable for baking due to its sugar-like consistency, while Stevia liquid sweetener is better for desserts, quark, smoothies or yoghurt.

In Germany, the sweetener blend Stevia consists of the main components steviol glycosides, rebaudioside A and stevioside. A high proportion of stevioside often leads to a bitter aftertaste in the composition. If you want to avoid this, make sure that the product contains an appropriate high percentage of, for example, 95% of rebaudioside-A, which has a very sweet taste.

Sugar comes in many forms — granulated, powdered, coarse, nectar, syrup — that certainly don’t affect the flavor and the texture of our foods in the same way. However, chemically speaking, they are not too different from one another.

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The Simple Formula: Sugar + Water
 

No matter where those sweeteners come from, they're made up of the same two parts:  sugar (sucrose, fructose, glucose) and water.

The ratio between them varies by type. Here’s a breakdown:
 

• Honey: about 80% sugar (mostly fructose and glucose)

• Maple syrup: 66% (sucrose)

• Agave: 69–77% (mostly fructose and glucose)

• Table sugar: 99.9% (sucrose).

Now let’s look at what makes up the rest.

The remaining portion is mostly water, and the amount varies depending on the form of the sweetener:
 

• Liquid sweeteners (syrups, nectars): 15–35% water

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• Solid sweeteners (granulated, powdered, cubes): 0.03–7% water ​​

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Beyond Sweetness: Their Unique Flavor
 

​While their sugar and water content may be similar, what sets these sweeteners apart is their unique flavor — and that comes from trace minerals, natural plant compounds, color compounds, and how the sweetener is processed.

Here’s a taste profile of some common ones:

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• Table Sugar: Neutral, sweetens without overpowering other flavors.

• Honey: Adds a floral taste; darker varieties have a bolder flavor.

• Maple Syrup: Varies by grade—darker syrup has a stronger flavor.

• Molasses: Offers a complex bitterness that intensifies with type (traditional, organic blackstrap, mild, dark, blackstrap).​

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Micronutrients in Sugar: Too Little to Matter?

Because some of those sweeteners, such as honey, maple syrup, date syrup, and coconut sugar are way less processed than regular white sugar, they tend to be perceived as more nutritious or healthier.

They do contain trace amounts of micronutrients, such as minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. However, they are not a significant source of any nutrient other than calories from sucrose/glucose/fructose. We would have to eat a truly unhealthful amount of them (100g or even a cup) to get our daily micronutrients requirement or the positive health effects from them. The calories and sugar content outweigh the advantages of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. 

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The bottom line? Don’t swap table sugar with other caloric sweeteners for nutritional value—they’re all similar in that regard. Choose them for their unique taste, aroma, culinary role, or the satisfaction they bring to your recipes. Check out my complete guide to substituting caloric sweeteners HERE.

Ever wondered if syrups have more calories than granulated sugars? Here’s the breakdown.
 

• Solid or crystallized sweeteners: Have over 90 percent total sugars and provide about 15 calories per teaspoon. Examples are coconut, date, and table sugar.
   

• Liquid sweeteners: Have over 50 percent total sugars and provide approximately 20 calories per teaspoon. Examples include maple syrup, agave, and honey.​​​

The difference in calorie content comes down to water. As seen above, caloric sweeteners consist of two main components: sugar and water. Their water content varies—from under 0.05% in table sugar to as much as 34% in maple syrup—leading to differences in calorie density.

To compare their nutritional value more accurately, we use a "dry basis"—which assumes no water is present. On a dry basis, all caloric sweeteners provide 4 calories per gram because they’re entirely composed of simple carbohydrates once the water is removed.

If you're wondering Are sugars that don’t spike blood sugar really healthier? Does choosing a sugar with a low glycemic index make it a better choice for overall health?

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Here's the truth: When it comes to comparing sugars, the glycemic index (GI) is meaningless. I'll explain.

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As said before, sugars, also known as caloric sweeteners, are primarily made up of sucrose, glucose, and/or fructose. When digested, sucrose is quickly split into glucose and fructose. Fructose is converted into glucose. And so, all sugars end up as glucose in your body. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Sucanat, muscovado, table sugar, honey, maple syrup, or any of the 80 sweeteners I’ve listed on this page. 

They all enter the bloodstream as glucose, which is used by cells for energy. The GI measures how quickly a sweetener increases glucose levels in the blood as shown in the image below.

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Some sugars have a low GI, which would place them in what is considered the “healthy” range of the scale. However, that does NOT make them healthier than table sugar.

​​Take agave nectar, for example. A low GI of 34 doesn’t make it better for you when compared to white refined sugar. It just means that it contains more fructose (see chart above).

Fructose ranks very low on the glycemic index scale (GI=19) because the GI measures ONLY glucose. Fructose doesn't immediately increase blood sugar levels as it takes twice as long to be absorbed, AND it must be converted into glucose by the liver before your body can use it. So, this “time delay” — from the time fructose is digested to when it becomes available as glucose — makes the GI score low, making it appear healthier when it’s not.

The bottom line? A lower GI doesn’t mean a sugar is healthier—it just reflects how quickly glucose enters the bloodstream. While choosing low-GI sweeteners may help with blood sugar management, the glycemic index is not a reliable tool for determining a sugar’s healthfulness. Instead, focus on how much you consume.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Sweetener supplier. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.