Blar.

[magedragonfire]

I think I must be the only person in the world that has my particular complaints when it comes to Splenda. A lot of people complain that it makes things bitter. I've found that in pop and such, it doesn't contribute bitterness at all. In fact, cold drinks with it in is just fine. I can't use it for coffee, though - I'd much rather prefer the saccharine substitutes like Equal or even Sweet-n-Low. Splenda makes foam on the top of the coffee, plus it has a tendency to really oversweeten. (When they say it measures equal for sugar? They lie.) Same thing with baked goods, at least for the oversweetening bit. It makes things really disgustingly sweet if you use the same volume of it as you would in a sugar-based recipe, along with making it not turn out as pretty. :|

I think the worst part, though, is the aftertaste I get from it - still not bitter, but a kind of terrible lingering sweetness that stays in my mouth for hours. My parents apparently don't get this at all. I can thus tell in two ways, immediately after having a bite of a slice of pie, whether or not it was baked with Splenda - and when I frown and comment on it, they ogle at me. "You can tell?" Of course I can tell. Why can't you? D: Maybe their tongues are old.

And the problem, of course, is that the problems don't go away even when you use half sugar and half Splenda. Sigh. I am damned either way if I want brownies that have 2 cups of sugar in them.

(Also? Don't ever try to make chocolate rolled-oat frogs with all Splenda. Bad, bad idea. The shit breaks down into a vile-smelling liquid while cooking, and you can taste nothing but that terrible awful chemical sweetness in them afterwards.)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The *only* way that I can tolerate splenda is to use half a packet in a cup of tea (orange pekoe, pekoe cut tea, to be exact). I like to use two teaspoons of sugar, but can only tolerate half a packet. I do not like it (Sam, I am) in anything else - pie, coffee, OTHER FLAVORS OF TEA - only in my basic, cheap, black pekoe cut tea. My best guess is that the tea itself is so bitter and astringent that nothing else comes through from the splenda.

It does exist in my diet sodas, and my best guess is that I just don't like splenda warm or hot or having been heated.

I will stick to the sugar, eat a lot less of it, and make sure I account for it in my insulin totals, when it comes to cooking.

WTF

[bastets-place.livejournal.com]

No, I am NOT anonymous, I am me, here, as indicated now that I have logged in again. Sorry about that.

[magedragonfire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's pretty much the thing you have to do with baking. Besides the taste, it also has a tendency to make whatever you bake with just not turn out properly. Sugar has other magical properties that lend well to baking; Splenda doesn't brown up as well, and doesn't interact with leaveners the same way. Admittedly, it works better than saccharines do - try baking muffins with Sugar Twin, and you'll wind up with hard little hockey pucks.

Ye gods, can you imagine using Splenda to make fudge? XD That's almost so awful-sounding as to attempt making.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

I find aspartame leaves a nasty nasty aftertaste in my mouth, but not for hours. Splenda pop is far more tolerable.

In general though, I really can't stand artificial sweeteners. Given the choice between diet pop or warm tap water, I'll take the tap water every single time.

[magedragonfire.livejournal.com]

I was brought up on the diet pop, so it's not a huge issue to me. I prefer it to regular pop most of the time, actually (unless we're talking about cream soda, which you can't get in diet aside from Jones, and I like me the bright pink sugary stuff).

Juices are really my favourite, but alas, they suffer the same sugary impediment.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

I love cream soda (mainstream, cotton candy flavoured stuff)... but only now and then. The "real" vanilla flavoured cream sodas (like Jones) just... don't do it for me.

I'm not a big pop drinker in general... it tends to be a "when I eat out" kinda thing, or maybe when I get a huge hankering. But this is pretty uncommon.

I just drink water. Endless water. People at work still marvel over my 1.5 litre cup I use. They boggle when I mention that I have a bigger, 2L one at home.

[theguindo]

Maybe their tongues just aren't wired to taste that certain taste! I remember experiments about genetics in biology class where half the class could taste this chemical and the other half couldn't. It's kinda like how some people can't hear that buzzing when you leave the TV on but not tuned to a channel.

[magedragonfire.livejournal.com]

It could be that! (I could taste that chemical in science class, for the record; it was awful. XD) But you'd think since I was their kid, I wouldn't be able to taste it either, unless it's not a genetic thing or I got the short end of the D/D or s/s stick.

The buzzing is less to due with genetics and more to do with the sensitivity of your ears. I think it's a certain frequency that's out of the audible range of most people is what it is - apparently they emit two tones, one at 60 Hz (which most people can hear; it's quite low), and one around 15000 Hz (which is out of the range of most older folk, but younger people have a better chance of hearing).