How to Process a Stevia Plant

Stevia is an all natural, calorie-free sweetener which can be used in place of sugar. For anyone wishing to avoid the additives of synthetic sugar substitutes, stevia offers an organic alternative. Although it is not recommended to be used in baking, it can be used successfully in sauces and many other foods as well as sweetener for coffees, teas and other drinks. If you have grown your own stevia plant and are ready to harvest it, a few simple steps can yield a great supply of an all-natural sweetener for your kitchen.

Things You'll Need

• Stevia plant
• Pruning shears
• Screen or netting for drying
• Coffee grinder

Instructions

1. Harvest your stevia plant in the late autumn, before the first frost. The longer you wait to harvest your stevia plant, the sweeter the final product may become as the cool temperatures intensify the sweet properties of the plant.

2. Cut the branches of your stevia plant with pruning shears, leaving about four inches at the base of the branch to help your stevia plant produce another great crop next year. If this is your second year with this plant, you'll want to replace it with a new cutting next year.

3. Strip the leaves off of the branches you pruned from your stevia plant. You can also add the tips of the stems to your harvest if you wish.

4. Lay the leaves out on a screen or net in an area with good air circulation and full sunlight. On a warm day, the drying process can be completed in as little as 12 hours. Drying times over 12 hours begin to degrade the stevioside content of your plant, making it slightly less sweet.

5. Crush the dried leaves in a coffee grinder. You can do this by hand as well, if you prefer. Store the stevia powder in an airtight container after grinding.

6. Add ¼ cup of finely chopped stevia leaves to one cup of warm water and let the mixture sit for 24 hours to create liquid stevia extract. Refrigerate the solution after 24 hours.

Tips & Warnings

• While a food dehydrator can be used for the drying process, it is strongly discouraged as this can lend a bitter flavor to the stevia leaves, reducing the quality of the final stevia powder.

References

• Growing Stevia

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish