Homemade Flavored Liquid Stevia Drops
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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 flavored liquid stevia this way too!
I've been using stevia for a long time now–ever since I knew that I had candida. I personally think that stevia is safe and I think you can grow to like it even if you didn't when you first tried it.
It can be hard to know how to use it, but here's a guide to help you use stevia to 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.
Thankfully, there's a simple way for you to make your own homemade flavored liquid stevia easily!
Flavor Options
There are endless options for flavoring these drops. Truly the sky's the limit.
You simply use whatever extract or natural flavoring you'd like your liquid stevia drops to be.
While I love all of the flavors that I've tried, vanilla liquid stevia remains one of my favorites.
I've used it in my Healthy Coffee Substitute and it can be used to sweeten any beverage.
How Much Will You Save With These Homemade Drops?
The cost of liquid stevia drops varies, but one thing is sure; you will save a lot of money.
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 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
- Dropper 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 since it's so concentrated. These stainless steel mini measuring spoons from Amazon are super handy. The 2nd smallest is the size of 1/32 of a teaspoon, which is the typical size of a scoop that's included in most stevia containers.
If you don't want to buy a 1 pound bag of stevia extract, here's a one ounce container.
Total Cost of This Homemade Liquid Stevia
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 a few readers have said that NOW stevia works well for this recipe and their stevia is quite a bit cheaper, especially in the one pound size.
- Stevia Crystals: I've gotten a few 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'd 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!
Homemade Liquid Stevia Drops
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 1/4 teaspoons stevia extract (The amount you need will vary by brand)
- 1 teaspoon glycerin (optional but recommended)
- 7 teaspoons vanilla extract (or other natural flavor/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 glycerin and 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.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It may vary depending on ingredient brands, substitutions, and preparation methods. Optional ingredients are not included. Net carbs are typically calculated by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols (such as erythritol) from total carbohydrates. This information should not be relied upon for medical or nutritional purposes.
What's your favorite way to use flavored liquid stevia drops?
What's your favorite flavor?
How do you make a stevia extract from fresh stevia leaves? I have about a bushel of leaves (or more) and am game to give an extract a try.
Hi Michael – I haven’t done it yet but my friend, Laurie, has a great post here. https://www.commonsensehome.com/stevia-grow-your-own-sweetener/
I think using the lorann oils or other oil flavorings you could use far less than alcohol based flavorings. I know it works great for vanilla and they have so many flavors to choose from otherwise some of the fruit flavored essential oils also work well but you need so very little
Isn’t Lorann mostly artificial? They have some tempting flavors but I don’t care for their formulations.
Have you ever tried to make a stevia extract from fresh stevia? I have several plants, the main being 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide, so I have a LOT of leaves.
No Michael…but I would LOVE to. You’ve read about my gardening problems. Hoping to get our peppers going and maybe some lettuce and broccoli…..maybe I should buy some stevia :).
Stevia is an easy to grow plant and a perennial. It gets better every year.
The only way that I know to use stevia is (1) fresh (2) dried (3) the juice (4) as an extract, from dried or I suppose fresh. With the fresh you are dealing with all the water, so I don’t know if that would adversely effect the taste, but the stuff doesn’t taste that great anyway, in my not so humble opinion.
All non-caloric sweeteners taste “artificial” to me, but that’s just me. My wife mixes stevia extract with sugar to mollify the flavor. So it’s not too bad.
Let me know if I can assist.
Michael
Thanks Michael! I don’t know if you remember me, but we have interacted a bit about gardening. I would love any help you can offer. I’m at wholenewmom at gmail dot com – thanks!
We found stevia plants in one of our local garden shops, alongside their wide variety of lettuce and other vegetable starts (we call them “bedding plants” here in Alberta, Canada). Another friend found the seeds online and was going to grow them from seed. They won’t survive our winters, but I tried bringing it in one year — I don’t know if it died because of being indoors or because it’s not hardy enough to survive my lack of care! 😉 We have used the fresh leaves and dried leaves both in green smoothies. My kids like their smoothies sweeeeet, so they enjoy it. Because we haven’t had a great blender, it leaves the dried leaves in little bits and that’s their favourite part of the smoothie! I am pretty stuck on the liquid stevia drops, too, so also very thankful for this recipe! I just bought about $45 worth of liquid yesterday because it was on sale. Now I’ll know to save my bottles and experiment with flavours. My kids really like flavouring their water with it since they don’t get sugary drinks like the kids at school and then they don’t feel deprived. Thanks. Looking forward to checking out all your other posts.
Sounds like a great system! I hope to try growing my own soon. Welcome and hope to see you around again!
Just saw this recipe and want to try it… I already have the white NuNaturals pure stevia extract (powder) and I’ll use water from my Berkey filter. Just want to make sure that the vanilla really is 7 tsp? Wouldn’t want to make a mistake and overdo.
Thanks for all you do!
Yes, that’s right :). Thank you!
The NuNaturals Stevia is cheaper at Iherb – 1oz for $9.79.
Thanks. They are changing formulas now so everything is basically up for grabs :).
I am ready to try this. What a great idea! I just want to make sure I have this right…. 2 and 1/4 teaspoons in 1/4 cup water? Seems like a lot of powdered stevia. How many drops do you use to sweeten a cup (about 8 oz.) of a drink?
Thanks so much!
Kim
I am so sorry for missing your comment! yes, that is right and I would likely say b/t 8-12 drops per cup – depends on your taste though :).
Just in case anyone is interested, it is easy to grow your own stevia and make extract from it. Making extract from fresh stevia leaves is SUPER easy, probably nearly as easy as the seven-step process you show here in this tutorial. Stevia is a very low maintenance herb which requires no special care, and it’s also easily rooted from cuttings if you want to grow additional stevia plants to increase your yield. Plus, mine dies back in the winter but has come back every year so far, so I never have to pay a penny for sweetener, and don’t even have to pay for a new plant every year!
Adrienne, I love all you do! What a wonderful website you have! I was wondering where I can get that nifty dropper bottle. When liquid stevia is called for in drops, I have quite a problem without a dropper.
Thanks,
Erica
My bottle was a used bottle of stevia drops :). You can buy something similar here.
Adrienne, you are truly a Pioneer Woman! I am in awe and so grateful for your hard work. I just recently got hooked on the very expensive liquid Stevia and now I can save some money with your awesome recipe. Shared this on my bakery FB page too and wanted to let you know that your Facebook like button does work! Have a wonderful day and thanks!! Ali
Yea! Thanks, Ali. You are so kind and really too much w/ your compliments, but I’ll take them anyways. Have a great day! Now if I could just recreate the root beer flavor my kids love so much :).
I am SO happy to find a way to make vanilla liquid stevia myself as I am blowing through the Sweet Leaf brand. I can’t have caffeine, so I drink a lot of water, but I almost ALWAYS add the flavor. My question – how much does this yield? I’m just trying to figure out what size bottle to store the extra in. Again, thanks for the recipe – what a find!!!
It yields a little more than the standard stevia bottle. I should try to re do it to fit all of it in one of their bottles :).
Thanks for the reply! So if I double or triple the recipe, I could do about three 2oz. bottles and save the rest, right? Is my math right?!?!? Thanks.