6 Sweet Sugar Substitutes

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Remember when the choice of fake-sugar packets stopped at pink or blue? Today's long lineup deserves a look, so we tested 11 brands of sweeteners in coffee, lemonade, and baked cakes. Some are suitable for sweetening beverages, depending on personal taste, but despite claims that they're "perfect," or "great" for baking, few did well in our cake test. That's because sugar does more than impart sweetness in baked goods; it also affects texture and helps cakes rise and brown.

Agave nectar

Madhava Light Agave Nectar isn't really a sugar substitute; it's mainly fructose. It's sweeter than table sugar, so you can use slightly less and achieve a similar sweetness. But the product costs 11 cents for a penny's worth of sugar (2 teaspoons) and cuts only about 5 calories when replacing 2 teaspoons of sugar.

Aspartame

Equal had a mild artificial-sweetener flavor in coffee; in lemonade it just tasted sweet. The Equal cake was free of artificial flavors, but it was also free of sweetness and tasted more like a biscuit.

Saccharin

Sweet'N Low had a lingering artificial flavor and a bitterness in lemonade that was less obvious in coffee. Baking instructions recommend replacing just half the sugar, which resulted in a tender, moist cake with mild artificial-sweetener flavor. But using sugar also adds calories.

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