The GF is raising a stevia plant and plucked a leaf for me to try today.
It was amazingly sweet, and quite tender; I enjoyed it a lot. We are
going to start saving up leaves in the hope of making our own extract,
although I am not quite sure as to how to go about it. I'm sure that
there are ideas on the net.

On Thu, 19 Jun 2014 10:22:41 -0400, Travis McGee >
wrote:

> The GF is raising a stevia plant and plucked a leaf for me to try today.
> It was amazingly sweet, and quite tender; I enjoyed it a lot. We are
> going to start saving up leaves in the hope of making our own extract,
> although I am not quite sure as to how to go about it. I'm sure that
> there are ideas on the net.

There's actually quite a bit about how to use stevia on the net.
Here is how to make a water based extract (sounds like it's something
a slow cooker would be perfect for - just increase the time)

Homemade Water Based Stevia Extract
Adapted from “Growing and Using Stevia”

Ingredients

1/2 cup dried stevia leaves, tightly packed
1 cup water

Directions

Bring water to a simmer in a small saucepan. Do not boil. you should
see small bubbles only. Stir in dried stevia leaves and remove from
heat. Cover and let steep for 40 minutes. Strain out leaves. Pour
into a clean glass jar, cover and store in refrigerator for up to two
weeks.

Yields approximately 1/2 cup extract.

--
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

On 2014-06-19 14:22:41 +0000, Travis McGee said:

> The GF is raising a stevia plant and plucked a leaf for me to try
> today. It was amazingly sweet, and quite tender; I enjoyed it a lot. We
> are going to start saving up leaves in the hope of making our own
> extract, although I am not quite sure as to how to go about it. I'm
> sure that there are ideas on the net.

Fresh stevia is much better than the crap you get in the store these
days, all of which seems to contain "natural flavor."

On Thursday, June 19, 2014 12:41:08 PM UTC-7, ImStillMags wrote:

> yeah it's a licorice flavor that turns me off. I've only found one Stevia product that like. It is called Stevita and they have Stevita spoonable as well. I buy it on Amazon all the time. It's actually good in coffee which is the acid test for me.

I get the jar for at home use and the packets to keep at work.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss...ta%2Caps%2C205

On Thu, 19 Jun 2014 10:22:41 -0400, Travis McGee >
wrote:

>The GF is raising a stevia plant and plucked a leaf for me to try today.
>It was amazingly sweet, and quite tender; I enjoyed it a lot.

For me, Stevia has an unpleasant aftertaste that's just strong enough
to put me off it, the unprocessed leaves are not quite as bad tasting
to me though. Luckily I don't have a real sweet tooth so it's not such
an issue for me anyway. I normally use honey and maple syrup for
anything I need to sweeten.

>We are
>going to start saving up leaves in the hope of making our own extract,
>although I am not quite sure as to how to go about it. I'm sure that
>there are ideas on the net.

I'm sure there are, I reckon you'll need a lot of leaves to make any
appreciable amount.