Sweet tooth: Raw Agave, Raw Honey, Dates, Stevia

[ReneeH]

I'm curious... What do you prefer as a sweetener? I'm hearing more and more people are moving away from Agave and toward honey, but honey is not considered vegan. Dates are fabulous, but don't work in every recipe. Stevia is ok, but has an after taste to me.

In LOLF, Alissa used Honey as a preferred sweetener, but in RFFE switched to Raw Agave. Honestly, I like both of them, but I'm finding that more and more people view Agave as nothing more than fructose corn syrup.

Just curious about what YOU think.

[Traceyraw]

I like them all. Sometimes I prefer Honey sometimes I prefer Agave like in smoothies. I like honey better with ACV, Almond butter, and banannas. I will use stevia sometimes for my green juice if im low on apples. Im lucky I get raw honey right from the farmers market.

Dates I can eat a bushel but don't really use them as a sweetner.

Im not sure about honey vegan thing. First I love it. 2nd bees are used to pollinate the fruits and plants we eat so Im not sure how we can stick our nose up at it.

I used to order raw vegan foods they only used agave for sweetner so does the raw cafe I visit only agave.

[MysticTree]

I use raw organic honey and raw dates but I like honey best I think.

I don't use either agave or stevia (raw or otherwise) and never have so I can't comment on them.

[ReneeH]

Yes, I was also using all of them except Stevia for my Raw Detox Box, depending on the recipe. I really do love Agave, but I'm still doing some research in it. I guess some saw it as the best thing since coconuts fell from trees, but now the question how good fir you it really is. I personally think moderation is the key with anything.

[ReneeH]

Hey Mystic, is there a reason you've never used them?

[qwerty988]

What about maple syrup? That's my fave.

[Papa2X]

I just used about 7 dates in a banana smoothie with cacao powder.... it is REALLY sweet, and I don't taste the dates - which are not really a favorite of mine.

[MysticTree]

What about maple syrup? That's my fave.

I wouldn't use it because it isn't raw but I know lots of people do

[SunshineMN]

We use stevia in our herbal ice tea. It takes a tad of work to find a good brand if you want the pure white undiluted kind of stevia in my opinion. We ran out and our neighbor offered some of his but one little taste on my finger and I decided to drink my tea unsweetened. Some have a very strong bad taste. Locally we buy Truvia which has a slight carmelized taste, but it's expensive compared to the "white powder" kind of stevia we usually buy.

Well hrmph... I guess we won't be buying Truvia any more. I was looking it up to verify something I was going to say here and found this article (http://benjimester.hubpages.com/hub/Truvia-Side-Effects). *sigh* Bit disappointing but not so surprising I guess. We plan to order the white powder stevia Azure Standard sells next month. Hopefully it has a good flavor.

We decided not to use agave because of the high fructose content. We avoid high fructose corn syrup so why would we switch to another sweetener that contains the same thing?

[fastfreedom]

I prefer honey. And my bees don't mind sharing either. ;-)

Dates are one of my favorite sweet snacks.

[ReneeH]

Hummm.... Great comments! Yes, I forgot about Maple Syrup, but Mystic's right, it's not raw...but it's one of those "exceptions" used in some raw books for those not purists. I do use Maple syrup when I'm fasting with the Master Cleanser Lemonaide, so I'm not a purist.

I'd love to find a Stevia that didn't have an after taste.

Thanks for sharing everyone!!!!

[Aleesha Sattva]

I use raw honey because agave and my body don't like each other. I never feel good after ingesting it.

I do love dates as well!

[DebB]

I use dates more than anything. There's just 1 recipe I make anymore where I still will use a little agave. I would use honey, I don't mind that it's not "vegan" - but medjool dates are what I use the most.

[ReneeH]

In regards to Honey, I read somewhere that it's not good to give to kids. Have anyone else heard or read that?

I also love Medjool Dates!

I'm finding that I'm drinking my Herbal Teas without using any sweetener at all. But, there are some raw desserts that don't taste right if you leave it out completely, so I'm trying to find the best solutions for the sweet tooth.

Thanks for the feedback yau'll!!!!

[SunshineMN]

The first place we ordered stevia from had really good stevia. We ordered from them twice and were happy both times. I think their website looks a little... unprofessional for the lack of a better word. We might order from them again but I'd still like to try Azure's first.

If anyone wants to try them out... http://www.emperorsherbologist.com/stevia_stevioside_credentials.php. We ordered 2 of the 15 gram container and each container lasted a couple months each, and we drink a lot of herbal tea (which is the only thing we actually used it for at the time). You can read how they came to sell their brand of stevia at the top of the page. :)

[walnutty]

I use this brand of agave and it tastes wonderful!

Xagave:

http://www.xagave.com/about-xagave.html

[ReneeH]

Thanks you guys!!!! Gonna check out both links today!