I must first say that I grew up on artificial sweeteners. My Momma has been type I diabetic since I could remember, so our house was padded with plenty of diet soda and sugar free candy.
In the 4th grade, I went on a field trip to The Burnet Park Zoo, which was a huge deal since I had never been to a zoo before in my life. Or, if I had, I just didn’t remember it. I was so excited about the trip, and I loved the fact that my Momma so lovingly packed me a great lunch. She also packed me a root beer soda, which was really a treat, because I very rarely got to drink soda.
Since my school was way too cheap to rent a pavilion at the Zoo, we had to retreat back to the bus to eat our lunch. This was back in the days when the seats on buses weren’t 16 feet high. You could see everything that was going on around you without even trying.
In the 4th grade, I was a little on the husky (see definition #1) side, and for some reason, everyone was always worried about what I was eating.
Needless to say, it was ‘all eyes on the husky girl’ as I pulled out my lunch.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich…check.
Barbeque chips…check.
Disgusting creme-filled cookies…check.
Waist Watcher Root Beer soda…check!
I got completely blasted by my classmates for having this Waist Watcher soda. They thought it was hilarious that the husky girl was trying to watch her waist. They were relentless. I tried to justify that the name was not “weight watcher”…it was “waist watcher”, so this somehow made it more reasonable for a husky 4th grader to partake in this beverage. They didn’t see my point.
Oh well.
I thoroughly enjoyed that soda anyway, and I survived the abuse.
The moral of the story is that I am no stranger to artificial sweetener.
You didn’t think that was the moral?
Surely, it was.
*****
Lately, I have been trying to cut out all sweeteners, natural or artificial. However, I do still enjoy the occasional cup of coffee–extra sweet, of course. I have been using Splenda religiously for many years, but one day in the grocery store, the giant boxes of Truvia were on sale. I had a coupon. And, you know how I feel about coupons.
Coupon + sale = heaven.
I purchased 80 packets of Truvia (“Nature’s Calorie Free Sweetener”) for $3.99, and since I was so excited about trying a new sweetener, I was very excited to get it at such a great price.
The following morning, I tried 2 packets in my morning coffee.
Initial Impressions:
The flip-top lid on the box is way cool. I liked the simple design on the box, and the strawberry looks delicious.
Upon opening the packet, I smelled the contents (which is a bad habit of mine), and the granules smelled sweet. There didn’t seem to be a strange smell, which was good. I touched the contents of the packet, and they felt like sugar. When I moved the contents around in the packet, it sounded like sugar.
I put both packets in my coffee with regular creamer.
Although Truvia looked and sounded like sugar, unfortunately, it didn’t taste like sugar.
I took one sip of my coffee and had to dump the rest out and start over. The taste was so bad that I can’t even explain it with words. I opted for no sweetener that morning, since I was out of Splenda because I had given my heart and soul to that $3.99 box of Truvia.
And, because I had no words to describe the wretched taste, I had to ask my coworker to try it as well. I didn’t tell her if I liked it or hated it, I just told her that I had “that new Truvia stuff” if she wanted to try it. She tried it, and said that it tasted like “iron”.
I’m not sure what iron tastes like exactly, but it’s probably not something that I want in my morning coffee.
