Coffee Sweeteners - A Guide

Sugar and coffee have a shared history of being expensive imports from European colonies and trade posts. However, people have been mixing these two ingredients together for centuries, with many coffee drinkers today searching for new alternatives to flavoring their cup. Today’s coffee sweetener options include natural ingredients like honey and spices, and manufactured alternatives like sugar alcohols. But similar to other mix-ins like milk, coffee sweetener can drastically alter the drinking experience

Popular sugar alternatives

Sugar has gotten a bad rep in recent decades, which has left some people searching for alternatives that provide a similar experience. Today, coffee drinkers can swap out their granulated sugar for manufactured and natural coffee sweetener alternatives.

Stevia
This natural sugar substitute is made from the leaves of the stevia plant that commonly grows around Asia and South America. Regarding its appearance, stevia looks similar to white granulated sugar but with a finer crystallized texture. Stevia is widely marketed as a low calorie sweetener alternative to cane sugar, but it can also be between 100 to 300 times sweeter than sugar. Some claim that stevia has a bitter aftertaste that resembles menthol, making it a less neutral-tasting alternative to granulated sugar.

Erythritol
Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that has been manufactured and sold as a sugar alternative since 1990. But this substitute also occurs naturally in fruits like pears and grapes or during the fermentation process in cheesemaking and beer brewing. Erythritol comes in a gritty, crystallized texture similar to granulated sugar and melts when stirred into hot coffee. Its taste is similar to granulated sugar but with a brighter, “fresh” aftertaste that slightly lingers in the background.