The Real Reason Kat Kinsman Hates Stevia

Sugar is not the only option available if you're looking to make your beverage or dessert a bit sweeter. There are tons of options, including but not limited to artificial sweeteners along with other picks such as honey and jaggery. Per Healthline, artificial sweeteners are polarizing and tend to attract extreme reactions from both ends of the spectrum. There are those who swear by them, while others choose to avoid them completely.

One of the most prominent characteristics of artificial sweeteners is that they tend to be a lot sweeter than traditional sugar. Stevia is one of the options available in the market and is often touted as a natural alternative to sugar. According to Everyday Health, Stevia, also referred to as Stevia rebaudiana, is basically a plant extract from South America. Some like it, but others refuse to even touch it. Someone who absolutely detests the product is food writer, Kat Kinsman. She is so repulsed by the product that she wrote an article against it for My Recipes.

As per Kat Kinsman, Stevia simply doesn't taste right. She writes for My Recipes that she'd even taste something like bath gel or ferret fur but not Stevia. "Stevia tastes like licking a recycling sack full of old aluminum cans. It tastes like swallowing an extinguished match," she wrote. One of the worst things about the product for her is that the aftertaste simply refuses to go away. Nothing seems to help: not mouthwash, not brushing.  

She has some technical points to raise, too. Kinsman mentions that Stevia isn't as natural as companies may claim. "The chemical compounds in Stevia interact with the tongue's bitter receptors along with the sweet, which is why most manufacturers balance it out with other components like acesulfame K, erythritol, and the like," she pointed out.

However, Kinsman does acknowledge that people who aren't supposed to have sugar for health reasons can definitely benefit from Stevia. A Reddit user wrote that using a tiny amount is helpful if you want to combat the strange aftertaste. The trick is simple: less is better in this case!