Sucralose Sweetener..??

[Ditch]

I was going to order some Sucralose sweetener powder from Leisure Liquids.. but have not got round to it..

I have all the rest of my ingredients to have my first go a proper recipe rather than just single flavour..

Plan is to do a strong sweet coffee cream and a vanilla custard, got everything I need apart from sweetener..

Any idea if any of the super market Sucralose based sweeteners would be suitable to dissolve in PG..??

I have some CANDEREL YELLOW: but its only 1.4% Sucralose (also dextrose, anti-caking, silicon dioxide)

I also have SWEETEX: but thats Sodium Saccharin (Anti-caking, Silicon Dioxide, Magnesium Stearate)

Or if any high street store sells pure Sucralose powder..??

Any advise much appreciated cuz I want to a play now lol..

 

[madpiano]

Pure sucralose is available in some health stores. I think Tesco does one as well. Try the liquid ones.
But I don't trust sucralose. It is made from sugar in a way that is far too close in my liking to making hydrogenated oils. I just have an iffy feeling about it. Probably no scientific reason for it whatsoever. If you pop into a health food store you should be able to pick up Stevia instead. (Don't buy Truvia or other processed Stevia brands, they have fillers in them).

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[RicModMaker]

That's a coincidence. I was wondering the exact same thing today. I've been buying sweetener and want to mix my own with PG. Can you get 100% pure stevia powder?

 

[madpiano]

You can online. Not sure where. My mum has a stevia plant and sends me dried leaves, so never looked into it.

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[LilyRed]

I've also been looking into this - one reason is because stevia seems reasonably easy to grow as a patio plant: it's half-hardy so will need to be started off in a warm place (kitchen windowsill should be fine) and once grown kept somewhere frost-free over winter) - you can get the seeds from Suttons seeds amongst other places. I'll try growing it this year as I've generally got green fingers.

The white powdered pure stevia extract I found in places like Holland and Barrett tends to have small percentages of other ingredients, which whilst safe for consumption, are untried for vaping, so I found some much purer stevia extract on amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stevia-Extract-Crystals-Simply-Wholesome/dp/B00GJRTIGU/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1391903195&sr=8-7&keywords=pure+stevia#productDescription

You can also buy the powdered leaf too, and for those of us what didn't know 'til now The recipe I found was to mix 1/4 cup (US measure) pure stevia leaf powder with 1 cup (US measure) hot distilled water; stir and leave at room temperature for 24 hours. After 24 hours strain the stevia out of the liquid and store the liquid stevia in the refrigerator. I'm not sure how sweet this will be so I'd make up a smaller mix to taste and test for starters. You usually can get the cup measures these days in the baking tools section of the supermarket.

madpiano, you are an expert in all things herbal - how do you make up your stevia liquid from the leaves?

I found the powdered leaf stevia on Amazon again here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/100%25-Pure-Stevia-Extract-Powder/dp/B008TMR8MY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1391903195&sr=8-4&keywords=pure+stevia

 

[madpiano]

I am not an expert in herbal things, lol! I use the dried Stevia leaves in my filter coffee machine, makes my coffee taste nice.
Boiled water would make a tea, not very strong and highly likely to grow bugs. It would be interesting to try to make a tincture (steep in Vodka) or use PG to extract it. But there must be pure, unprocessed Stevia out there?

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[Ditch]

I searched every where yesterday, Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's, M&S, Holland & Barratt, I even asked in the Boots Pharmacy..

All of the pre-made stuff contains too many filler for my liking, even branded Stevia is only a couple of percent Stevia.. (Truvia is full of shite)..

10g of pure Sucralose can be found here to mix to taste with PG, they also do a PA ready mixed one and Pure Stevia, all cheaper than any of the high street rubbish.. I was just being impatient & wanted to play mad chemist yesterday, will put an order in to LL tomorrow and add sweetener to taste after steeping..

Link: http://www.leisureliquids.com/sweeteners-enhancers

Forgot too add don't forget POTV code for discount at checkout..

 

[LilyRed]

I am not an expert in herbal things, lol! I use the dried Stevia leaves in my filter coffee machine, makes my coffee taste nice.
Boiled water would make a tea, not very strong and highly likely to grow bugs. It would be interesting to try to make a tincture (steep in Vodka) or use PG to extract it. But there must be pure, unprocessed Stevia out there?

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A tincture would be good as you're only using one or two drops per 10ml of mix - but don't worry; I never ever use tap water for any vaping mixes - neither should anyone! I live in an agricultural area and our tap water is full of agrochems according to the water report from Anglian; I had to close down my tropical fish tank as no amount of pre-treatment to our water stops algae growth - not something I want to see in my juices - erk! Even a solution made with distilled water would only have a short shelf life and would have to be kept refrigerated.

I think adding the pure extract crystals to PG or VG (AG might be better?) similar to the way ethyl maltol crystals are made up would work too. I meant the 'herbal expert' as a bit of a compliment madpiano as you make soaps and similar things and seem very knowledgeable about the ingredients and way they are processed

There are some health concerns over the use of stevia in food, as it could possibly cause hypoglycaemia, so maybe anyone with diabetes should keep an eye on their blood sugar levels if they are using it in e-liquid. Stevia can also lower blood pressure - for some of us this is a positive benefit, but not for everyone. I've looked at the other forums for more info on this and at the moment it seems to be a bit of an unknown, so I suppose forewarned is fore-armed.

The stevia plant itself is a member of the daisy group of plants: chamomiles, sunflowers, Artemisia (the main ingredient of absinthe) and marigold are probably the most common ones used in food and flavourings and colourings for foods and cosmetics (also in a subset of the family are lettuce and chicory) , so if you are allergic to any of these it's possibly best to avoid it or test it carefully before using it in juices.

 

[madpiano]

He he, its fine. Herbal Expert just made me think of different kind of herbs
Our tap water here in London is pretty safe, after all it has been filtered through at least 4 other people first :-) know the problem with fish tanks. Our water is high in Nitrates here, I used to use rain water when I had my fish tank. Good for watering my plants though.
I will have to grow one of these plants now just to see how we could make an extract.. Enabler

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[Gandalf]

every day is a learning curve, now I know a little more :-)