Tea sweetened with splenda....

[bamainguam]

Ok, I'm originally from the south, so I MISS my sweet tea!!!hehe. If I did a gallon jug of decaf tea sweetened with 1 1/2 cups Splenda, how much splenda would that be in a 8oz glass? Does anyone care to guess? Not very good with the math part...TIA

[Dieselbud]

Re: Tea sweetened with splenda....

Ok, I'm originally from the south, so I MISS my sweet tea!!!hehe. If I did a gallon jug of decaf tea sweetened with 1 1/2 cups Splenda, how much splenda would that be in a 8oz glass? Does anyone care to guess? Not very good with the math part...TIA

1.5 cups of splenda = 16TBPS = 46tsp / 8 cups = almost 6tsp / glass

5+ carbs/glass is not a good trade off for something sweet IMO :no

(some say .9 carbs /tsp, some say .5 carbs........ to stay safe I use the higher number)

[bamainguam]

Wow, didn't realize it would be that much. I've only had water since I started and I'm on day 10. I bought some Diet Rite, but I'm afraid to drink it..hehe Thanks for answering me.

[scott123]

And for the U.S. numbers...

1.5 cups = 24 T = 72 t / 16 cups = 4.5 t/cup

As far as the number of carbs per teaspoon of granular splenda, there's no controversy there. A teaspoon of splenda weighs exactly .5 g. There's no way of squeezing an extra .4 g in there. To have .9 g net carbs per teaspoon, granular splenda would have to weigh at least .9 g. It doesn't

Still, at 2.25 net carbs per cup, I would give liquid splenda some thought. Every carb counts. I'd also toss another sweetener (or two) into the mix. Can't beat synergy - less carbs, less money, better quality of sweetness.

[bamainguam]

What is synergy??

[not2late]

Wow, didn't realize it would be that much. I've only had water since I started and I'm on day 10. I bought some Diet Rite, but I'm afraid to drink it..hehe Thanks for answering me.

Try out the Diet Rite first, to see if it is sweet enough for you.

Your tastebuds do change. I never realized how sickenly sweet imitation crab meat was until I tried it again (yuck!). The same thing with the Heinz low carb ketchup----much too yucky sweet for my tastebuds.

[scott123]

What is synergy??

You know, I've tried to explain synergy probably tens of times, and I still have trouble describing it.

Basically synergy is a magnification/boost of sweetness when two or more sweeteners are combined. A boost that wouldn't be present if the sweeteners were being used separately.

In other words, if, for the sake of argument

1 part of sweetener A (let's say splenda) = 1 cup sugar equivalent

and

1 part of sweetener b (let's say maltitol) = 1 cup sugar equivalent

Combining 1 part A + 1 part B should equal 2 cups sugar equivalent.

It doesn't.

1 part A + 1 part B = 2.5 - 3 cups sugar equivalent.

That additional .5 - 1 cup boost - that's synergy. A lot of artificial/alternative sweeteners have a synergy with each other, such as splenda/acesulfame potassium (ace k), splenda/erythritol, splenda/stevia or stevia/erythritol. The list goes on. The more sweeteners you combine, the more synergy is achieved.

Not only do you end up using quite a bit less sweetener and spending less money for the same amount of sweetness, the aftertaste of each sweetener is less, resulting in a far superior quality of taste - the closer you come to the taste of real sugar. By combining sweeteners you're also cutting carbs.

It's basically something for nothing. The power of numbers. So, if you're using only one sweetener to bake with, you're not only throwing money down the drain, you're sacrificing quality as well.

[Laurenfra]

OK I have wondered about that. I have been doing a lot of baking with spenda. I find it easy because it matches cup for cup with sugar. If I want to add nutisweet or um whats it called (pink Stuff). How do you figure amounts. I have been afraid to do trial and error due to the cost.

[scott123]

Lauren, from what I hear, nutrasweet (the blue packets) does have good synergy with splenda, but you wouldn't want to bake with it, as it breaks down with heat.

Nullo uses saccharin (pink packets) with splenda (and other stuff). I'm not a big fan of saccharin as I find it makes baked goods taste bitter. Still, though, that might just be me. A good rule of thumb when combining two sweeteners is to use about 3/4 of the amount. In other words, if the recipe uses 1 cup splenda, try 1/2 C. splenda and 1/4 C. equivalent of saccharin. It might be a little less or little more, so if you can taste it for sweetness, that helps, but I find 3/4 a good ballpark (for 2 sweeteners). With 3 or more sweeteners, that ratio drops to 1/2.