Bulk Stevia - Stevioside vs RebA

Stevia is the common name for stevia sweeteners. It is also used to describe the plant. It is a native perennial plant originally found in Paraguay and Brazil. It contains around 10% of stevia glycosides (sweet components) in its leaves. Stevia in its natural herbal form is approximately 10 to 15 times sweeter than common table sugar. You can actually eat the leaves but they can leave a bitter menthol-like aftertaste.

Stevia leaves contain 6 stevia glycosides, or sweet components, where each glycoside contains a different level of sweetness. The two main glycosides are Stevioside and Rebaudioside A (RebA). Generally, Steviosides represent 5-10% and RebA represents 2-4% of the dry weight of a stevia leaf respectively.

There are other related compounds including Rebaudioside C (1-2%) and Dulcocide A&C, as well as minor glycosides that are found in very small quantities in the leaf. They are less sweet and also contribute to the bitterness.

A typical stevia extract that combines all 6 glycosides is around 250 sweeter than sugar and has a strong bitter menthol-like aftertaste.

Stevioside is one of the glycosides (sweet components) found in the stevia leaf. Stevioside extract is generally 200-300 times sweeter than sugar but has the bitter menthol-like aftertaste. RebA extract is around 300 times sweeter than sugar and is the sweetest compound in the leaf with much less of an aftertaste. Very high purity RebA, as high as 97% (but generally 95-97%), is the sweetest of all the glycosides but also comes at considerable cost.

Bulk Naturally Sweet Stevia (in 1Kg packets), both Stevioside90 and RebA40, are high-intensity sweeteners and as such are rarely sold to retail markets in their pure form. Depending on the application, they can be easily blended with either fillers and/or bulk sweeteners. This gives Food & Beverage manufacturers and formulators the flexibility for instance to:

• Adjust the sweetness level
• Modify the taste
• Balance out the flavour from other ingredients 

Typical fillers and bulk sweeteners include dextrin, erythritol, inulin, lactose, maltitol, maltodextrin, sorbitol and xylitol. Hundreds of preparations containing stevia sweeteners with fillers and/or bulk sweeteners are now commercially available.

For general consumer use, we recommend our Naturally Sweet Blend, which contains erythritol as its filler, so it does not have the bitter menthol-like aftertaste.