Are You Ready to Step Beyond Stevia?

[thistlebloom]

I like stevia. Of course I really only use it in tea. I grew it one year, and Steve's right, the taste is better when dried. Now I use a liquid stevia. I use unbleached cane sugar or honey for cooking and whatever else. I didn't care for agave particularly.

 

[897tgigvib]

Stevia, I liked to pinch off the growing tips and munch them.

And now reading about this Cucurbitaceae.

I love wikipedia's mad scientist description at the following point:

"The sweetness of the fruit is increased by the mogrosides, a group of triterpene glycosides (saponins). The five different mogrosides are numbered from I to V; the main component is mogroside V, which is also known as esgoside.[3] The fruit also contains vitamin C."

That needs to be spoken with the understatement of Bond, James Bond. Mmmm, as though he was telling it to the sweet little asian bond girl receptionist who is accidentally going to be a reluctant hero in the story.

Required to liberate the world from free radicals, and attempt to discern mogroside V from esgoside, while our sweet little asian Bond girl finds the keys to the Hillman Minx, convertible of course.

Enter the music of Kitaro, the Hillman Minx gamely plugging east down the Silk road, the stark Takla Makhan desert, mirages of ancient caravans, they wave back in salutation. Oh yes, this will be a mystic Bond. Our sweet asian receptionist turns off road, south. Faint, long, distance, sharp! distance! Yes! A recent storm has exposed the ancient trail, leading...