A Curious Case of Monk Fruit Sweetener

I have been using Monk fruit sweetener for a few years but have recently noticed something when I began to make cookies. My initial thought was the almond flour as I never experienced anything strange when making lemonade with the sweetener. Today, we tried no-bake cookies as a lower carbohydrate/sugar version. Upon my first taste, I recognized the same issue as I had experienced previously.

Bitterness. It is almost like an aftertaste and harsh it is. My early suspicions were wrong. This sweetener appears to get bitter when heated. For the no-bakes, this almost became unpalatable. It is not pleasing at all. I am now hesitant to use this sweetener whenever I am going to heat it. It is not as bad as the Ricciarelli in terms of bitterness, but it is there, hidden. Looking back, my blackberry pie had some minor bitterness. I have used the sweetener in other recipes but never in large quantities, and that may be the reason why I never noticed it before. This has me wondering if a chemical change is happening when it is heated. That will require some research, but for now I would not recommend it for no-bake cookies.

It is a shame that I am finding bitterness with this sweetener as it has been my go to sugar but I will be reluctant to use it where heat is used or in large quantities. There are a few other sweetener substitutes I may try in the future, but this has been quite disappointing.