I bought this product for the first time 7 months ago. I bought
NOW Foods Stevia Liquid Extract Alcohol, 8 Ounce Bottle three months later. My motive was to compare these products and see which one is best for me.
I will try to be as detailed as possible. So again I am evaluating "Sweet Leaf: Liquid Stevia Vanilla Creme" and "Now Foods: Better Stevia Original".
At first, I expected Better Stevia to be what the packaging described, a better alternative to Stevia drinkers. I expected it to be exactly what they advertised in its packaging:
-Better tasting
-Just as healthy
etc.
To compare them, I alternated an average of 6 drops into my morning coffee everyday.
==Taste Evaluation==
After everyday usage of these two products and after testing them extensively; I see no -significant- difference between the two in taste. Please do take into consideration that I did not test these by serving suggestion amount (see Suggested Serving below).
==Ingredients==
Now let's talk about the ingredients. Both products claim to be made with natural ingredients. "Sweet Leaf: Liquid Stevia Vanilla Creme" lists "natural flavors" apart from "Stevia extract". "Now Foods Better Stevia Original" lists "water", "certified Organic Stevia extract" and "11% alcohol".
Sweet Leaf has quite an advantage, since it does not list alcohol as an ingredient.
I wanted more evidence about ingredients. I thought that Sweet Leaf was trying to pull as fast one, by passing alcohol as a "natural flavor"; like many companies have done.
So I visited the Sweet Leaf website and found this: "SweetLeaf Stevia® Sweetener does not use chemicals, alcohols, solvents or enzymes at any stage of the extraction and purification process."
Bingo. Sweet Leaf has -no alcohol-.
==Suggested Serving and Packaging==
"Sweet Leaf: Liquid Stevia Vanilla Creme" serving suggestion is 5 to 8 drops and contains a dropper for easier administration of the product. You can count exactly how many drops you're serving. As long as you don't go beyond 7-8 drops it should not be bitter at all.
"Now Foods Better Stevia Original" serving suggestion is 1 to 4 drops and has a split-open cap that it's very messy. You can't count by drops, usually it spills to the body of the container. It is very difficult to measure exactly how much you're administering. I found that many times the bitterness was noticeable due to not knowing how much I was using.
Final evaluation from 1 to 5.
Taste:
"Sweet Leaf: Liquid Stevia Vanilla Creme" = 5
"Now Foods Better Stevia Original" = 5
Ingredients:
"Sweet Leaf: Liquid Stevia Vanilla Creme" = 5
"Now Foods Better Stevia Original" = 4
Suggested Serving and Packaging:
"Sweet Leaf: Liquid Stevia Vanilla Creme" = 5
"Now Foods Better Stevia Original" = 2
All in all Sweet Leaf wins, for several reasons. The packaging makes it very easy to serve the product properly. When I used the Sweet Leaf dropper with the Better Stevia I found that 4 drops weren't bitter. But adding 8 drops of Better Stevia started to make my drink bitter. So Better Stevia claims it tastes better, as long as you follow their serving suggestion. Sweet Leaf tastes better otherwise.
And to folks who really care about their alcohol intake for whatever reason; Sweet Leaf claims to have none.