I see it being used in all sorts of recipes and I finally ran across it yesterday in an Amish store. $13.75 for a 1 ounce bottle!!!!!!! IS THIS STUFF GOLD, OR WHAT??? I had no idea it would be that expensive and DH wouldn't let me buy it!

Is this stuff better than other sweetners? What exactly is it and is there a cheaper place to buy it????

Cheapest I've seen for the pure extract is about $7.50 at Whole Foods [in Coral Springs -- near my parents' place.] I can get the KAL Brand for $9.99 around here. The Green bottle [Sweet Leaf Brand] is about $12-13 for 0.9 oz. Both are very good quality.

1 oz. of pure stevia extract has the sweetening power of almost 3 pounds of pure cane sugar. 1 Bottle should be sufficient to sweeten 200-8 oz. Beverages. So, that little bit goes a long way. I use 1 tsp in place of 1 cup of Sugar/Splenda [and that is the basis of my figures.] I found that conversion in "Sugar-Free Cooking w. Stevia."

Does stevia taste better than using Splenda??? I noticed with a chocolate syrup recipe I tried that it had kinda of a bitter taste with the Splenda but didn't notice it in other recipes.

Stevia does have a bitter taste, I usually add some Splenda when I use the stevia and the bitterness goes away.

Vitamin Cottage has a wide selection of stevias.