Customer Reviews

Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Blue Agave, Light, 23.5-Ounce Bottles (Pack of 6)

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Of the several brands of agave nectar that I have tried, this one is by far the best. It has the least "taste" to it - it is just sweet (very similar to simple syrup that you would make with sugar and water).

Works great in coffee and tea, and can be used in baking as well.

A friend introduced this product to me and I dear say, it's excellent! I am so happy I can use Agave instead of sugar substitutes if I desire to deviate from my norm. Agave, pronouned a-gar-vee, taste good, it's nice and sweet, it dosen't raise my blood sugar levels and it hasn't caused me any weight gain. It's a natural.

I bought this because I'm trying to find a decent alternative to Splenda that I can use in beverages and baking.

I drink LOTS of iced tea, all year round and that's primarily what I hoped to use this for. Unfortunately, I did not like the taste of it in my beloved iced tea. I admit I'm picky about my iced tea and this just didn't taste good to me.

It's pretty good in hot teas and I made an apple cake that was heavenly! I'd recommend using the tartest apples you can find such as granny smith because the recipe called for one cup of sugar and I used only a scant half cup of the agave, it was plenty sweet. When I make the recipe again, I'll use slightly less.

I made peanut butter oatmeal cookies and they were good but I did notice that the bottoms brown MUCH MUCH faster when I use this syrup than when I use Splenda. I'd definitely recommend using insulated cookie sheets or slightly lowering the oven temp for cookie recipes. Also though my recipe calls for creamy peanut butter, next time I'll use crunchy because the cookie batter was pretty sticky which can also cause the bottoms to brown faster. To "fix" the cookie batter I made, I added chopped peanuts and that seemed to help.

I also made banana bread with this and usually my banana bread (made with half whole wheat flour and half white flour) has a pretty dense texture. Using this syrup made it have a "fall apart" density/texture which sort of annoyed me though it did have a good flavor. Next time I'll try using slightly less and see if that doesn't help it hold together more.

The downside to this syrup is that I, like many other reviewers, received one bottle that had leaked and WHAT A HORRIBLE MESS! Also the bottles are just wrong. The opening causes drips and no matter how hard I tried not to let it, it would always drip down the side of the bottle and required wiping off with a wet paper towel. I didn't see on the bottle if this required refrigeration after opening or not. I just refrigerated just in case and it fell over inside my refrigerator and though the cap was tightly screwed on and closed, it leaked in there too and was a big pain to clean off the glass shelf and I cannot imagine the nightmare if you have the open wire kind of shelves because at least it was contained on just one shelf in my fridge.

Bottom line: Unfortunately, I still like the taste of Splenda better though I'm afraid it's not good for me and also, the agave is NOT portable and cannot really be taken with you easily to use away from home. I would buy this again to use in baking but will continue to search for something else to use in beverages.

i think this is an excellent and healthy alternative to sugar for sweetening anything. i made some ginger cookies using this and molasses as my only sweeteners. the batter is runnier than if using sugar, so i added a pinch more baking soda and a little more flour. their website has recipes. i disagree that this is like pancake syrup. it is much healthier than maple or imitation corn syrup-based syrups, but it is watery. also, in cold drinks it thickens up like honey does, so it takes longer to dissolve. sweeten your iced tea when you first make it before adding ice and hot drinks or hot cereals or baking is no problem. it has no after taste or unique taste (like honey does) whatsoever, so is equal to sugar in its uses without the spikes in blood sugar. i think this will become the new sweetener of the future due to its lower glycemic index and that it's much healthier than the lab-created high fructose corn syrups or artificial sweeteners. i hope the price comes down as well. this sells regular price for $5.99/each at whole foods market here, so it is not a huge savings to order online considering you have to buy a case, but convenient especially with free shipping. i am going to order the dark next time to use in place of brown sugar in recipes and maybe for pancake syrup. i highly recommend this syrup for all your sweetening!

I've been using Agave in my tea, coffee, cooking and on pancakes for over a year. I'm a type 2 diabetic, and need something with a low glycemic index. This product is the best - and it tastes wonderful. My kids don't miss honey on their pancakes any more, and this keeps everyone from having sugar highs and crashes.

Highly recommend!

I had high expectations but am riding the fence about it so far. It's syrupy which is okay except it doesn't dissolve in iced tea. In hot tea, it leaves somewhat of a strange taste. I've used it on my morning cereal by putting it on the cereal before adding the milk and it seems to work. Maybe I just need to get used to it but, so far, it's a slow process. There weren't any guidelines on how to use it and that probably would have been helpful. I'll continue to try using it, though, until I'm fully convinced one way or the other.

Love the product, it was the packaging. Out of the 6 bottles two of them had leaked agave out into the packaged box. Since I knew the product was still good, being a sugar source, I just washed off the agave outside of the bottles. Am I concerned about ordering again this product? Yes, even though getting a great deal on the product, paying for sloppy work isn't my cup of tea.
The agave has a smoother taste then honey and the flavor blends in better to what it is added to.

Agave is great product for people who are diabetic. What disappointed me was the delivery service and how it was delivered. my first delivery never came so I had to call to put in another order. When the second delivery came the content inside had spilled over. Three of the bottles inner seal was torn and spilled onto the bottle and the box.

from Jonny Bowden, PhD, C.N.S.:

Agave syrup (nectar) is basically high-fructose corn syrup masquerading as a health food.

Sorry. Don't kill the messenger.

It's easy to understand how agave syrup got its great reputation. Even the word "Agave" has a fine pedigree, coming from the Greek word for noble. The blue agave species- considered the best for the making agave nectar -- flourishes in rich volcanic soil. (It's also the only variety permitted to be used for the making of tequila.) And extracts from the agave plant have been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

Unfortunately there's zero evidence that any of those compounds are present in the commercially made syrup.

Agave nectar is an amber-colored liquid that pours more easily than honey and is considerably sweeter than sugar. The health-food crowd loves it because it is gluten-free and suitable for vegan diets, and, most especially, because it's low-glycemic (we'll get to that in a moment). Largely because of its very low glycemic impact, agave nectar is marketed as "diabetic friendly". What's not to like?

As it turns out, quite a lot.

Agave nectar has a low-glycemic index for one reason only: it's largely made of fructose, which although it has a low-glycemic index, is probably the single most damaging form of sugar when used as a sweetener. With the exception of pure liquid fructose, agave nectar has the highest fructose content of any commercial sweetener.

All sugar -- from table sugar to HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup) to honey -- contains some mixture of fructose and glucose. Table sugar is 50/50, HFCS is 55/45. Agave nectar is a whopping 90 percent fructose, almost -- but not quite -- twice as high as HFCS.

Fructose -- the sugar found naturally in fruit -- is perfectly fine when you get it from whole foods like apples (about 7 percent fructose) -- it comes with a host of vitamins, antioxidants and fiber. But when it's commercially extracted from fruit, concentrated and made into a sweetener, it exacts a considerable metabolic price.

Research shows that it's the fructose part of sweeteners that's the most dangerous. Fructose causes insulin resistance and significantly raises triglycerides (a risk factor for heart disease). It also increases fat around the middle which in turn puts you at greater risk for diabetes, heart disease and Metabolic Syndrome (AKA pre-diabetes) .

And fructose has been linked to non-alcoholic, fatty-liver disease. Rats that were given high fructose diets developed a number of undesirable metabolic abnormalities including elevated triglycerides, weight gain and extra abdominal fat.

In the agave plant, most of the sweetness comes from a particular kind of fructose called inulin, which actually has some health benefits -- it's considered a fiber. But there's not much inulin left in the actual syrup. In the manufacturing process, enzymes are added to the inulin to break it down into digestible sugar (fructose), resulting in a syrup that has a fructose content that is, at best, 57 percent and -- much more commonly -- as high as 90 percent.

"Agave syrup is almost all fructose, highly processed sugar with great marketing," said Dr. Ingrid Kohlstadt, a fellow of the American College of Nutrition and an associate faculty member at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. "Fructose interferes with healthy metabolism when (consumed) at higher doses", she told me. "Many people have fructose intolerance like lactose intolerance. They get acne or worse diabetes symptoms even though their blood [sugar] is OK".

Agave nectar syrup is a triumph of marketing over science. True, it has a low-glycemic index, but so does gasoline -- that doesn't mean it's good for you.