Monk Fruit vs Stevia vs Allulose: Which Sweetener to Use for What

Monk fruit and stevia are intensely sweet plant extracts: a pinch or a few drops do the work of a spoon of sugar. Allulose is different. It is a rare sugar that is a little less sweet than table sugar and is used spoon for spoon. For tea and coffee, any of the three works. For baking, you need something with the bulk of sugar, which is why allulose, or a monk fruit and allulose blend, is the one to bake with.

What is each one?

Monk fruit extract comes from Siraitia grosvenorii, a small gourd from southern China also called luo han guo. Its sweetness comes from compounds called mogrosides. The main one, mogroside V, measured about 378 to 425 times as sweet as a 5% sugar solution in lab tests (Wu et al., 2022). There is more on the compound in our guide to mogroside V.

Stevia sweeteners are made from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana. The sweet compounds are steviol glycosides, such as rebaudioside A, which are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar by weight. In India, steviol glycosides were cleared for use as a table-top sweetener in 2015 (Just Food, 2015). Europe's food safety authority set an acceptable daily intake of 4 mg per kg of body weight, expressed as steviol (EFSA, 2010).

Allulose (D-psicose) is a rare sugar, a close chemical relative of fructose, found naturally in small amounts in figs and raisins. Ingredient makers describe it as about 70% as sweet as table sugar. The US FDA counts allulose at no more than 0.4 kcal per gram and leaves it out of the total and added sugars on US nutrition labels (US FDA). Our full explainer is what is allulose.

How do they compare?

Because monk fruit and stevia are so concentrated, a retail powder that measures like sugar is always a blend: the extract plus a bulking ingredient. That bulking ingredient decides how the product bakes and tastes, which is why we explain it in why we do not use erythritol.

Which one tastes most like sugar?

Taste is personal, but the research on stevia is consistent on one point: the common glycoside rebaudioside A carries bitter and liquorice-like notes. In a consumer panel of 126 people, rebaudioside A was rated significantly more bitter than sugar, while the newer rebaudiosides D and M were not (Tao and Cho, 2020). When part of the sugar in iced tea was replaced with rebaudioside A, tasters picked up more liquorice-like, metallic and bitter aftertaste (J Food Sci Technol, 2014). In practice, that is why a few drops of stevia often taste better than many.

Monk fruit is usually described as rounder and fruitier. Allulose tastes closest to sugar on its own, but because it is less sweet it is often topped up with a little monk fruit, which is what our powder does.

Which one should I use for chai and coffee?

Any of the three. Drops are the most convenient for a single cup: add 2 to 3 drops, stir and taste. A powder that measures like sugar is easier when you make chai for the whole family, because you can keep your usual spoon. Our step-by-step guide is how to sweeten chai and coffee without sugar.

Which one should I use for baking?

Allulose, or a blend built on it. In a cake or biscuit, sugar gives volume, tenderness and colour as well as sweetness, and drops cannot do any of that. Allulose takes part in the browning reactions that colour a crust. In a University of Reading study, cupcakes made with allulose came out browner than cupcakes made with sugar (Bolger et al., 2021), so lower the oven by about 10–15 °C and check a few minutes early. Our comparison with white and brown sugar covers the swaps in more detail.

What about Indian sweets?

For kheer, halwa, payasam and ladoo, where sugar mainly sweetens and dissolves, a powder that measures like sugar is the simplest swap. Sweets that depend on sugar setting or crystallising, such as a one-string chashni or a barfi that has to firm up, rely on how sucrose behaves, and no substitute copies that exactly. Try a small batch first.

Where do our sweeteners fit?

Our powder is two ingredients, allulose and monk fruit juice powder, in a 400 g box or a resealable 400 g jar; one spoon replaces one spoon of sugar. For drinks there are monk fruit drops and stevia drops. None of them contains erythritol. The full range is in natural sweeteners, and the background is in what is monk fruit sweetener.

This article is general information about food ingredients, not medical or nutritional advice. If you manage diabetes or any other medical condition, talk to your doctor about your overall diet.

Sources

1. Wu J et al. A review of the phytochemistry and pharmacology of the fruit of Siraitia grosvenorii. Molecules, 2022. doi:10.3390/molecules27196618
2. Stevia gets clearance for use in India. Just Food, 2015. just-food.com
3. EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources Added to Food. Scientific Opinion on the safety of steviol glycosides for the proposed uses as a food additive. EFSA Journal, 2010;8(4):1537. efsa.europa.eu
4. US Food and Drug Administration. Guidance for Industry: The Declaration of Allulose and Calories from Allulose on Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels. fda.gov
5. Tao R, Cho S. Consumer-based sensory characterization of steviol glycosides (rebaudioside A, D, and M). Foods, 2020. doi:10.3390/foods9081026
6. Sensory study replacing 20% and 40% of the sugar in iced tea with rebaudioside A. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 2014. doi:10.1007/s13197-014-1624-z
7. Bolger AM, Rastall RA, Oruna-Concha MJ, Rodriguez-Garcia J. Effect of D-allulose, in comparison to sucrose and D-fructose, on the physical properties of cupcakes. LWT – Food Science and Technology, 2021;150:111989. University of Reading repository