Stevia History

To prepare it in the traditional way, the leaves of the stevia plant are collected and dried, then crushed to a powder. You may see this light brown powder sold in bags or bottles. Of all of the stevia plant, only the leaves are sweet. The stems and leaf veins tend to be bitter and so are not included in high-quality stevia leaf products. The fresh green leaves can also be brewed to make a tea.

Swiss botanist Moisés Bertoni first described the plant and its sweetness, then in the early 1930’s, two French chemists isolated the chemicals that give stevia its sweet taste. These compounds were named stevioside and rebaudioside, and are 250–300 times sweeter than sucrose, heat stable, pH stable, and non-fermentable.

In the early 1970s, Japan began cultivating stevia so they wouldn’t have to eat nasty artificial sweeteners like cyclamate and saccharin, which are suspected carcinogens. They’ve been using stevia in food products, soft drinks (including Coca Cola), and for table use. Japan currently consumes more stevia than any other country, with stevia accounting for 40% of the sweetener market.

Other asian countries that use Stevia include China, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia, as well as Saint Kitts and Nevis, and parts of South America (Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, and Uruguay) on this side of the Atlantic.