Tate & Lyle: 40% of consumers are highly sensitive to bitter aftertaste of stevia
Our final stop was at the booth of Tate & Lyle, which claims that in a recent blind taste test of fruit juice based beverages made either with its proprietary Tasteva stevia sweetener or a high quality Reb A, 63% of consumers preferred the Tasteva-sweetened version.
The same percentage found the drink sweetened with Tasteva (a proprietary combination of steviol glycosides) to have a “pleasant aftertaste” or “no aftertaste,” while 54% found the fruit drink sweetened with Reb A to have an “unpleasant” aftertaste, said marketing manager Amy Lauer.
Consumers taste stevia differently: “80% of consumers detect the bitterness/licorice aftertaste of stevia, and 40% are highly sensitive to it. But 20% just find it sweet.”
Tasteva delivers without the need for flavor maskers: "So the cost in use is very competitive."
Reduced calorie fruit juice is a big trend: "A lot of Moms dilute juice with water as they want their kids to get the nutrition but not the calories and the sugar, so we’re getting a lot of interest in this area.”
