Do you love Liquid Stevia Drops but don't love the price? Here's how to make your own Homemade Liquid Stevia and save loads of money, PLUS you can make lots of delicious flavors using this method.
I've been using stevia for a long time now--ever since I knew that I had candida. I personally think that stevia is one of the safest "alternative" sweeteners and I think you can grow to like it even if you didn't when you first tried it.
I know it can be hard to know how to use it, but here's a guide to help you use stevia get you inspired.
One of my favorite stevia products is liquid stevia drops.
They are little dropper bottles full of flavored liquid stevia that you can add to your favorite beverages (like sugar-free lemonade and coffee substitute) and sweet treats (like raw brownies and almond joy® bars) without:
- feeding candida or
- adding calories
I love them and with the amazing variety of flavors out there you can really go to town.
The only problem is, they are really pricey.
Of course...being the type who tries to DIY or MYO processed foods like Homemade Powdered Sugar Substitute, Homemade Egg Replacer (like Ener-G), Easiest Almond Milk, Easiest Coconut Milk, Homemade Taco Seasoning, and Homemade Vegetable Broth, I sought to see if I could make my own liquid stevia blend.
And--it worked!
While I love all of the flavors that I've tried, vanilla liquid stevia remains one of my favorites.
So, it only makes sense that I tried making my own vanilla liquid stevia first.
And I was really pleased with the results!
Maybe if I work at it enough, I can come up with some other fancy flavors, but for now, this is fitting the bill.
I've used it in my Rich, Delicious and Healthy Coffee Substitute and it can be used to sweeten any beverage.
There are loads of low glycemic recipes that call for liquid stevia drops as well. Now you know how to make it yourself!
I know it is possible to use the stevia plant to make stevia extract, but since I'm super busy, I wanted a really quick and easy way to do this.
How Much Will You Save With These Homemade Drops?
Well, liquid stevia varies in cost.
This vanilla liquid stevia from NuNaturals currently costs $12.52 on Amazon.
This one from Sweet Leaf costs $9.09.
The total cost for my 2 oz bottle?
It's a little variable and took some intense calculating to figure out, since I purchase my stevia in bulk (maybe you should too :-)?) but here goes:
Stevia extract (I currently use this brand.): $1.03
Vanilla extract (I used this brand. Here is another brand with no sugar.): $1.05
Dropped bottle (mine was free since I saved a leftover one from stevia, but you can purchase one on Amazon (this is a handy-dandy set of 6 dropper bottles, so you can make all kinds of stevia drop blends.)
By the way, stevia is pretty hard to measure. These stainless steel mini measuring spoons from Amazon are super duper handy.
The 2nd smallest is the size of 1/32 of a teaspoon so you can easily measure your stevia powder.
Total Cost of Flavored Liquid Stevia Drops:
Without dropper bottle: $2.08
With dropper bottle: $3.58 (plus shipping on the bottle, of course, but you can reuse it.)
So if you don't need a bottle, you can save up to 84% by making your own vanilla liquid stevia.
At these savings, I guess you won't be buying any more liquid stevia drops, eh? Well, with a few exceptions.
There are some flavors that would be pretty hard to replicate. One of them is this really great Root Beer Flavored stevia drops.
Add these to sparkling water and you've got a great Sugar-Free Root Beer!
Recipe Notes and Substitutions
- Stevia Brand: I link to NuNaturals stevia in the recipe card since that is the brand I recommend in general, but I have heard that NOW stevia works well for this recipe.
- Stevia Crystals: I have gotten reports that some people get stevia crystals on their dropper after making this and placing it in the fridge. I'm not sure why that is, but hopefully we can figure it out.
- Stevia Flavors: If you would like your liquid stevia to have a different flavor, you can try different extracts in place of vanilla. Options include:chocolate extract, cherry extract, lemon extract, peppermint extract, and butter flavor. I haven't tried any of these but I think they should work!
Easiest Homemade Flavored Liquid Stevia Drops
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 1/4 teaspoons stevia extract (The amount you need will vary by brand)
- 7 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Pour water into a small saucepan.
- Warm over medium heat. Add stevia extract.
- Heat and stir until stevia is dissolved.
- Remove from heat. Add vanilla extract or other extract if desired.
- Pour into a small glass bottle with dropper. Note: There will be a little too much to fit into the bottle. Just keep it in another bottle or container and use it first. I chose these measurements for ease of use.
- Store in the fridge. Thanks to a reader's inquiry, I now know you should keep your liquid stevia in the fridge for the flavor to last longer. It won't spoil but you may need more drops to have the same amount of flavor if you leave it at room temperature. Love my readers!!!
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.
What's your favorite way to use flavored liquid stevia drops?
What's your favorite flavor?
How can we make ‘sugar free’ Indian thick syrup called ‘CHASNI’ ?
It’s a thick & sticky heavy sugar syrup.
Hi there. From what I am reading, it's a sugar free recipe using ketchup, correct? If so, then you could use this ketchup recipe--it should work out great for you. Let me know and hope that helps!
I predominantly use drops to flavor my coffee as well as seltzers.
I am looking forward to trying this out, as I am using Trader Joes Stevia Extract I will pay attention to the commenters who mentioned using 3/4 tsp for that version of stevia extract (non liquid).
I am curious if you have had any luck with other flavors, for example I would love to make my own stevia drops using either capella or OOO Flavor drops or some brand then I could really save a bundle, as for now I use their soda flavors in my seltzer water and then add in liquid stevia (also Trader Joes). and dont get me started on coffee!!
I figure I would have to get deep in the weeds with math to figure all this out, as I currently do about 4-5 drops of the flavor drops, and 1.5 dropper fulls of liquid stevia (unflavored, TJ's) to get my tastes correct for roughly 8-16 oz.
Any suggestions you might have to go down this path would be great, then I can just keep one bottle with me instead of 2 :).
Thanks in advance for any suggestion you have and if I go down the rabbit hole myself I will update my comment
Also in case anyone cares I have come up with a "decent" version of Sweet tea and Kool aid. I use 1/4 tsp Stevia (Trader Joes Extract Powder the small clear jar) and 1-2 tbsp of either sugar or splenda (I am watching carbs). Do that to one envelope of Kool aid or 1 quart of tea. use this to come up with your preference on sweetness, it does the job for me though 🙂
Hi there. I'm so so sorry I haven't tried anything else -- did you happen to? I would like to experiment as well!
This was very watered down compared to sweatleaf sweetdrops vanilla creme. Luckily I only tried out half the recipe while tasting 2 drops of this recipe in 1T water side by side with 2 drops of the sweetdrops in 1T water. Kept adjusting stevia extract powder and vanilla extract until the flavor and sweetness intensities matched each other. Ended up using 1T pure stevia extract powder, 2T water and 2T vanilla to get the flavor and sweetness intensity to match the real thing. My stevia is not the NOW brand (which takes 2 tsp to equal the sweetness in 1c sugar) but a brand that needs 1-1/2 tsp for a cup of sugar. Thanks for the recipe. It gave me a place to start anyway.
Hi there. I'm so sorry for not responding sooner. Your comment got buried. I have definitely noticed that the NOW stevia isn't as strong as others. It really can depend on the brand. I just updated the post to mention that. Thanks for the comment--is it still working well for you?
wondering if liquid stevia could be used instead of the granulated?
It won't be concentrated enough and besides the point is to make Liquid Stevia so using liquid stevia to make liquid stevia doesn't really make sense. Were you thinking something else?
The not being concentrated enough makes sense. I've been trying unsuccessfully to make my own with liquid stevia and vanilla extract. Now I understand why. Thank you very much... this is the info I was needing.
You're welcome!
So I've been looking through the old comments and I'm trying to see if I need to add alcohol, which I don't ever use in things, in order to keep it out of the frig. I want to be able to take it with me. Willl it last with just water outside of the frig?
The shelf life will vary. I can't really say what it would be either way since I have been trying to sort that out but you could use a glycerin based flavoring like w/ this extract: https://wholenewmom.com/whole-new-budget/homemade-vanilla-liquid-stevia-extract/
This recipe is very tasty, easy to make, and definitely a money saver. One note of caution...the strength of Stevia depends on the brand. If your brand of organic stevia extract is Pyure, SweetLeaf, or Trader Joe's use only 1/3 of the amount in the receipe as they are 3 times stronger. This recipe calls for 21/4 tsp if you are using NuNaturals...use only 3/4 tsp for the 3 times stronger brands. If you use the teeny, tiny spoons that would be 1 pinch and one tad.
Very interesting - you are saying that Trader Joe's and Pyure and SweetLeaf are 3 times stronger than NuNaturals? What NuNaturals product are you referring to? They have several. Thanks and glad you liked it!
Thanks for your quick reply. I double-checked the web sites and my calculations to be sure I had the correct information. NuNaturals Pure Extract NuStevia Powder is the product I was referencing. From the NuNaturals web site: ¾ of a teaspoon = 1 cup of sugar.
From their respective websites, SweetLeaf Organic Stevia Leaf Extract & Pyure Organic Stevia Extract each are only 1/4 teaspoon = 1 cup of sugar. I couldn't find the appropriate information for Trader Joes Organic Stevia Extract, only a reference to seeming to be the same strength as SweetLeaf...which has been my experience. TRHM is almost the same as SweetLeaf, etc. the only difference is they would say 1/4 teaspoon ROUNDED = 1 cup of sugar. NOW's Better Stevia Powder requires 2 teaspoons = 1 cup of sugar...8 times the amount of SweetLeaf, etc.
Keep up the great work!
Great work right back atcha! They should all be the same except that the NOW seems more granulated. Why are they not the same strength? Did you see any reasoning as to why that is?
After double-checking the stevia extract conversion information...the information above is correct. Unfortunately, I don't know why Now's Better Stevia Powder and NuNaturals NuStevia are different from one another and from all of the others...which are equal to one another. I'm emailing you the information so that you can double check my information. Hope this is clearer than mud...and helpful.
So sorry for the delay. Yes, this is all confusing. I ended up in this post mentioning other brands that I love - have you found any others that you really like? https://wholenewmom.com/how-to-like-stevia/. Were you able to contact the companies to find anything out? I agree that NOW's stevia is unusual but Trader Joe's is pretty weak as well.
If i wanted the liquid stevia
To be used as a drink sweetener such as tea, or coffee. Can we drop the vanilla. What else vo up ld weuse?]
Good question. You could use food grade glycerin but it will be sweeter.
For other flavours, would it still be 7 Tsps of extract, or would it just depend on the type?
Thank~you! I'm excited to try to make this!
I think they should all be the same! Enjoy!
Is the stevia extract you use the glycerite or the one with alcohol?
Thanks (trying to use what I have on hand).
PS: I found Grape Sweetleaf in the clearance bin at the health food store for $3; besides making grape 'soda', if you mix it with a peanut butter protein shake or fat whip it tastes like PB and jelly!
Hi Davette!
How are you doing? I remember you from years ago--good to hear from you! I use the stevia extract so neither. We use those glycerites for flavoring seltzer all the time. I should do a post about our setup! That shake sounds great! What is fat whip?