Affordable stevia?
Posted by NewShoes522 on Jan 20, 2008 · Member since Nov 2007 · 406 posts
Hey all!
I was wondering if anyone knew where I could buy stevia for a decent price. Most of my local grocery stores have it, but it is ridiculously expensive (like $12 for a small bottle)! I did buy one just to try it, and now I'm hooked, so I'd like to find a place to buy it to make it a regular staple in my pantry. Any ideas?
Thanks! :)
ive just been looking at this on the internet, we want to grow our own, apparently the health benefits are destroyed in the liquid or white powder form, but the ground and whole leaf are very good health aids for type 2 diabetes, hypertension, thrush, gum disease, to name but a few. so we have bought some leaves off of ebay, fair trade organic, and we will try them, if we get on ok with them we will buy seeds or seedlings and grow and dry our own as we do will most of our herbs.
have a look at ebay and see what you can find. i think its prob best again to look for fair trade as as with sugar, cocacola and pepsi are already wanting to use this which means it will end up being unethical in many markets.
good luck with your cheap stevia search, and consider growing it yourself if you have access to area.
We buy stevia in the form of Sweetleaf from the grocery store in town. It comes in a box of 100 packets and costs around $12. That sounds like a lot, but it lasts a long time and each packet contains about the equivilant of 4 teaspoons of sugar. We love it on cereal and in tea, etc.
The vitamin company NOW makes powder, liquid and packets that should be less than the Sweet Leaf stevia. If you have a local health food store you should see if they stock it, or would be willing to special order it for you. You could also see if you can purchase it directly from the company.
I get SweetLeaf from my local Kroger. It runs about $3.50 for a box of 50 packets. Sometimes Kroger has them on sale for a dollar off that price, so I usually try to stock up then.
The cheapest solution? Grow your own, if you can. However, I like SweetLeaf because it's standardized and the sugar conversion rates are well-known.
we have grown it as a plant before.
its not very convienent to have to deal w/ boiling down the leaf, getting it extracted, etc... so i never used it much except for tea.
but it was relatively easy to grow in a pot. and you could chew the leaf and taste the sweetness. pretty cool!
My last post got deleted, so let me keep it short vitaglo dot com the NOW brand under $5 for an 1oz of white powder extract, please check my page for contact details if this is any help to your healthier you/lifestyle, or at least send me a wave hello. Thanks.
I was actually going to buy Stevia today. I think it was $9.99 for 100 packets. Then I read the warnings and it said to use caution if you have allergies to...can't remember the fancy name but in brackets, they put such as ragweed.
Hate to spend the money to find out it makes my allergies worse. Do any of you use it that are allergic to ragweed or similar plants?
This is what I use before I bought the package from Trader joe's. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00068UBH8 it is powder form and pretty cheap, but it get bitter very easily if not careful to put too much. That is why I switch to package. But this jar of powder last very long time.
Thanks for all the help everyone!
Although it sounds like a great idea, I don't think I have the patience to grow it, boil it down, and grind it into a powder. I do grow some spices, but I live in an apartment so my opportunities are a little limited. Let me know how it goes for you though. Someday, when I have more time and space, that sounds like a really good, affordable option for me.
JUSTAHOTBAG: Thanks for the link. I've actually been using NOW thus far, and I really like the taste of it. It looks like buying it online is my best bet.