Sometimes you just need a little bit of sweet, but you could do without the extra calories. Artificial sweeteners contain some pretty scary stuff, and they taste downright horrible. Stevia is different.
It’s a simple plant that you can grow right in your backyard, just like I did. It’s hard to imagine a green leaf tasting that sweet, but take one nibble of a stevia leaf and it’ll blow your mind.
Stevia is the best sweetener for people with diabetes according to Diabetes Strong, and unlike lab-made sweeteners, there’s nothing artificial about it. You can actually just grow a stevia plant, in much the same way you’d grow mint or oregano, and then extract the natural calorie-free sweetener.
Why bother though? When you can just buy premade stevia extract?
While store-bought stevia may say “all-natural,” most brands aren’t just stevia. This one, for example, has lab-made erythritol as the first ingredient. It may only be flavored with stevia, but it’s still somehow allowed to be labeled “All Natural Stevia.”
Beyond knowing what’s in it, I make it for the simple joy of all things DIY. Why bother making jam, or soap, or your own dinner? For me personally, I like the idea of knowing how to take care of my own needs as much as possible.
We make our own backyard maple syrup, and raise bees for honey (and because they’re fun to watch). When I wanted to try out stevia, making my own was the obvious choice.
Besides, it’s absurdly easy to make your own stevia extract.
The first step to making your own stevia extract is either growing the stevia or buying dried stevia leaf.
Stevia is super easy to grow, and I planted mine, and then honestly I completely forgot about it until fall. I’d planted it on the border of my garden, near a fence growing grapes, and the grapes and weeds had all but eaten the plants.
Still, they managed to grow into two feet tall bushy plants, with quarts of stevia leaf on each plant. I had enough to make a gallon of homemade stevia extract, but for now, I’m starting small.
This batch of stevia extract is just one pint, and the rest of the leaves are drying for a homemade stevia powder, which is just as easy to make.
How to Make Stevia Extract
To make stevia extract, you need three simple things:
- Stevia Leaves (fresh or dried)
- Neutral Vodka
- A Jar
That’s it. It’s hard to make this sound like a recipe because it isn’t. Pull the stevia leaves off the branches, put them into the jar, cover them with vodka.
Chop the stevia leaves before putting them in the jar, or don’t, it’s up to you. Let the leaves steep in vodka for about 2 days, any longer and the extract can get bitter. Unlike when you’re making a homemade tincture, you don’t want to extract everything out of the leaves, just their simple sweetness.
(I’m using fresh stevia leaves here, but if you’re using dried, I’d suggest using half as much. For fresh, fill the jar, for dried only fill it halfway. Dried leaves pack tighter and are more concentrated sources of the sweet flavor.)
Once the extract is complete, filter out the leaves and bottle the stevia extract in an amber dropper bottle.
So what about the vodka in the extract? That’s not exactly low-calorie. Don’t worry, stevia is very strong, and it only takes a drop or two to sweeten ice tea.
Trust me, if you tried to take a whole vodka shot of stevia extract you’d be sorry, it’s completely overpowering. A pint of stevia extract should last you months, if not all year, depending on how often you use it. It’s a vodka extract, so it’s shelf-stable and should last indefinitely.
How to Make Stevia Powder
Homemade stevia powder isn’t any harder than extract.
If you have fresh stevia leaves, they’ll need to be dried first. Lay them out in a well-ventilated area, or chop the plants off at the base and hang them whole from a rafter. Either way, they’re reasonably dry to start with and it should only take a few days to dry them completely.
If you’re in a very humid area, try drying them in the oven on the lowest setting. Once they’re dry enough to completely crumble in your hands, they’re ready.
Starting with store-bought dried stevia leaves, you’re ready to go.
A handful of fresh stevia leaves ready to be dried for homemade stevia powder.
The next step, turn the leaves into a powder.
The easiest way to do this is a clean coffee grinder, one of those tiny cheap blade grinders. It’s important that it’s never been used, not even once, to grind coffee though. I keep one separate just for grinding herbs, and the herbs don’t leave their flavor in it as coffee would.
Place a few dried leaves in the grinder and pulse until it’s a powder.
Since homemade stevia powder is actually powdered stevia, instead of lab-made powdered erythritol flavored with stevia, it takes considerably more in to get the same effect in recipes. It’s still much sweeter than sugar, and you only need about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of homemade stevia powder to replace a cup of sugar.
When using it in recipes calling for powdered stevia, you may need to add a bit more than the recipe calls for. It’ll depend on your tastes and the sweetness of your particular plant.
Recipes Using Stevia
Stevia is surprisingly versatile, and if you’re really on a DIY kick, you can use it to make your own homemade toothpaste. Here are some ideas for using it in healthy recipes:
- Healthy Vanilla Pudding
- Stevia Lemonade
- Sugar-Free Cinnamon Maple Roast Pecans
- Sugar-Free Apple Strudel
- Stevia Mexican Hot Cocoa
- Low Carb Pumpkin Cheesecake
Beth Coleman
Great article, thanks. The Stevia you recommended is not available, and not known to be in the near future. Can you recommend another? I buy organic zing currently. As a diabetic I drink 2 cups of herbal tea daily and really appreciate the sweetness since I have placed myself on a limited diet. Or do you sell it? It is frigid winter here so not possible to grow yet. Thanks!
Ashley Adamant
Here’s another link to dried stevia leaves to try. For seeds once it is spring, Fedco seeds is a great choice. The seeds themselves don’t keep well, so they have to be fresh. Only buy a small amount that you’ll plant all in the same year.
Kelly
Fabulous! I’ve been growing a plant for 2 years, now I know how to use it in 2 applications rather than just drying the leaves whole.
Thanks!
Del
Please help – my Stevia extract was boiling for about 20 or 30 seconds when I wasn’t watching at the beginning. Will that be OK or did I ruin this batch? Thank you!!
Administrator
This article is for making a stevia extract which just involves steeping the stevia leaves in some vodka. There is no heating required.
Irene Petree
You don’t give amounts for dry vs fresh leaf. EVERY other tincture I’ve made calls for half the amount of herb.
Ashley Adamant
You are correct, I’ve gone in and added a note to that effect. When using dried, you only need half as much to get the same effect as fresh because everything packs tighter. Sorry, I forgot to mention that, I usually put that in my tincture recipes, but forgot it in this one. Thanks for the heads up!
Krista
Just curious why the grinder can never have been used for coffee? We have 4 stevia plants in the garden but I am doubtful I’ll be able to harvest much as my kids are constantly asking for a “sugar leaf” and keep the plants very small.
Administrator
If you use the grinder for coffee then the stevia will most likely taste like coffee.
Carla
Can I put fresh stevia in refrigerator pickles
Administrator
I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t.
Jodi Havener
Quick question, as I just finished bottling my stevia…should it be green? I’ve tasted it and I’m seriously not sure if I made green vodka or stevia extract 😬
Administrator
Yes, it’s going to naturally be green because of the color of the leaves.
Sylvia Van Hoy
When processing the plant matter can the tender most part of the plant’s stems also be used or should we use just the leaves only? I generally like to cut the plants up to allow more surface for the vodka to do its job & to use as much of a plant as possible. I hate to waste any part of the plant if it can be used as well. 🤔🤗
Administrator
I haven’t ever tried using the stem. The stem has much less sweetness than the leaves so you won’t get near the flavor. Feel free to give it a try and let us know how it works.
Sherry Baxter
Will this infusion taste like stevia or like vodka? I want to make some but dont want the alcohol Taste in my morning coffee
Ashley Adamant
You literally only use a drop or two in coffee, as 1-2 drops (or at most 3-4 depending on the strength of your infusion) equals about a teaspoon of sugar in terms of sweetness. You shouldn’t taste the alcohol at all.
Carolyn
I don’t have any Vodka can I use homemade pecan moonshine?
Administrator
You could certainly try it. I would be very interested to know how it tastes.
Tedi
I am an organic grower.
I have taken a hiatus this year to relocate,
So bought organic stevia ground online.
I love and subbed to your site here.
I am wondering how to dehydrate the leaves so they are considered “living,” (108f and below, then perhaps grind fine with a mortar-pestle?
Tedi
Administrator
If you are wanting to dry them at a lower temperature you can just air dry them. Either lay them out on a flat screen or you can tie them in small bundles and hang them to dry.
Angela
Super informative.
Administrator
Thank you. So glad you enjoyed it.
Jen
I’m allergic to the cane plant and hypoglycemic so sugar is completely off the table for me. I usually use pure maple syrup but sometimes it just doesn’t quite cut it and I can’t use the stevia because it’s usually cut so this is fantastic for me! Thank you so much
Administrator
You’re very welcome. So glad we could help.
Michelle
I made this but it wasn’t very sweet! Any ideas?
I used Ketel One vodka and a new stevia plant i picked up at the local nursery. Chopped leaves, covered in vodka and let marinate for 3 days. It’s pretty mild. My only guess right now is that the plant is not mature enough.
Administrator
It may have actually steeped a little too long. If you go longer than 48 hours, it can start to get bitter. The other thing you can do is gently warm it on the stove for about 20 minutes after straining. This will help remove some of the alcohol, improve the sweetness and thicken it up a bit.
MH
It wasn’t bitter, just very weak.
Administrator
I’m sorry, I misunderstood. It’s possible that a more mature plant could make a difference. I would maybe try and experiment as the plant matures and see if there is a difference. Be sure to let us know what you find out.
Diane
Mine too it isn’t bitter just not very sweet. And I boiled it to thicken and still not very sweet. Could it be the leaves I purchased.
Administrator
Yes, I would say it is most likely the leaves.
J. Ann
Last year, mine, made with fresh whole leaves, was weak also. After straining, I put a coffee filter on top of jar and let it evaporate to about half original volume. That helped. Now, It takes about a tsp to sweeten a cup of tea. Tastes good. This year, I am going to use a jar packed full of dried leaves and see what happens.
Dayna
Thanks for this post! I’m curious if you think freeze drying instead of dehydrating would work?
Administrator
Freeze drying will definitely work and might actually give you a better result.
Jenn
Just curious if you can still use the leaves after removing them from the vodka? Any chance they can be dehydrated and powdered, or would they have lost all their flavor at that point?
Administrator
There probably won’t be much flavor left after removing them from the vodka.
Missy
I would like to make the liquid stevia, but I’m concerned because of alcoholics in our family. I did not see this issue addressed antwhere. Do you have any info about this please.
Thank you, Missy
Administrator
That’s really just an individual decision for you and your family. You could probably try a glycerite instead which is an extract using vegetable glycerin instead of alcohol.
Kristen
I like brandy better. It kinda has a brown sugar taste to it.
Ashley Adamant
That sounds delicious!
Jennifer Brothers
My husband is fond of the chocolate liquid stevia in his morning coffee, but at $10/oz, I would prefer to start making it myself. Do you think flavored vodkas would work for the infusion? Or do you have another suggestion to add flavor without adding calories?
Ashley Adamant
Yes, flavored vodka would work for the infusion, but I think you’d actually get better flavor adding in a few cacao beans or a tablespoon or so of cocao nibs. They infuse into alcohol really well, and homemade tastes better than the stuff they use to make flavored vodka.
Kathleen B
Absolutely love this site!
Do you put a lid on the jar during the initial 2 days? For those concerned, I would think the alcohol would have evaporated after 2 day if no lid.
Thank you!
Administrator
Yes, I would put a lid on it.