I had never even heard of Stevia until the fall of 2011. I was driving up through California en route to Oregon when I stopped to meet some friends of my Uncle's. One of them kept an extensive herb garden. She led me through it, explaining each plant and its properties as we went. When we got to her Stevia plant, she invited me to chew on some leaves. I was shocked. They were so sweet!
With the advent of products like Truvia, Stevia in the Raw and Sweet Leaf, Stevia has made its way into the mainstream marketplace. When I came across Coco Polo, a company that specializes in chocolate sweetened with Stevia, I was curious but also had my reservations. For one thing, there is still a fair amount of debate about Stevia's safety in the form it takes in order to be added to foods. Most products that market themselves as "Stevia" only use an isolated part of the plant, the part that makes it taste sweet. Whether or not this isolation produces negative effects in the human body is still mostly unknown. It's the whole "just because it's natural doesn't mean it's good" thing. Secondly, Stevia is extremely sweet. The leaf itself is 30x sweeter than sugar, and the purified extract is 200-300x sweeter than sugar. That's a lot of sweet, even for me!
So I thought that this bar would be super sweet. It's not. The one thing I will say is that the Stevia leaves a slight aftertaste. Ironically it is pretty similar to the aftertaste I've experienced with artificial sweeteners. That being said, this is actually one of the earthier-tasting bars I've had, and that's a good thing when one considers the cherries. The cherry flavor dominates this bar, bursting across the palate in all its puckery sweet goodness. They were still chewy and somewhat juicy, which is pretty stand-out for fruit added to a chocolate bar.
Many health food stores sell Coco Polo products. They are mid-priced bars, running between $4 and $6 per 2.5 oz. bar. They are based in Highland Park, NJ. Thanks for reading! Strawberry kisses :* :* :*
With the advent of products like Truvia, Stevia in the Raw and Sweet Leaf, Stevia has made its way into the mainstream marketplace. When I came across Coco Polo, a company that specializes in chocolate sweetened with Stevia, I was curious but also had my reservations. For one thing, there is still a fair amount of debate about Stevia's safety in the form it takes in order to be added to foods. Most products that market themselves as "Stevia" only use an isolated part of the plant, the part that makes it taste sweet. Whether or not this isolation produces negative effects in the human body is still mostly unknown. It's the whole "just because it's natural doesn't mean it's good" thing. Secondly, Stevia is extremely sweet. The leaf itself is 30x sweeter than sugar, and the purified extract is 200-300x sweeter than sugar. That's a lot of sweet, even for me!
So I thought that this bar would be super sweet. It's not. The one thing I will say is that the Stevia leaves a slight aftertaste. Ironically it is pretty similar to the aftertaste I've experienced with artificial sweeteners. That being said, this is actually one of the earthier-tasting bars I've had, and that's a good thing when one considers the cherries. The cherry flavor dominates this bar, bursting across the palate in all its puckery sweet goodness. They were still chewy and somewhat juicy, which is pretty stand-out for fruit added to a chocolate bar.
Many health food stores sell Coco Polo products. They are mid-priced bars, running between $4 and $6 per 2.5 oz. bar. They are based in Highland Park, NJ. Thanks for reading! Strawberry kisses :* :* :*