Table of Contents
What is Monk Fruit?
Monk fruit (also known as Siraitia Grosvenorii or Luohan Guo) is a small sub-tropical melon that has been cultivated in the remote mountains of Southern China for centuries. According to legend, monk fruit is named after the Buddhist monks who first cultivated the fruit nearly 800 years ago.
Monk fruit thrives almost exclusively in China and bears fruit resembling a lemon in size and shape. The Guilin region, with its subtropical mountainous terrain at elevations of 300 to 500 meters, ample rainfall, and moist, well-drained soil, provides an ideal cultivation environment for this plant.
What makes Monk Fruit Special?
Monk Fruit is sweet like any other fruit, but what makes monk fruit special is that its sweetness doesn’t come from sugar but from natural antioxidants called Mogrosides. These mogrosides, identified as I, II, III, IV, V, and VI, are found in varying concentrations, ranging from 0.5% to 3.8% in the dried fruit. Out of all of those, Mogroside V is by far the sweetest… up to 250 times sweeter than regular sugar!
The industry figured out how to extract Mogroside V from large quantities of monk fruit, and this (coupled with increasing consumer awareness) led to mass adoption of monk fruit as a sweetener. Millions of monk fruits are harvested and processed each year to extract this wonderful compound.
Types of Monk Fruit Sweeteners
There’s two main categories of monk fruit sweeteners… Extracts and Blends. You can find both liquid and solid forms of each of these types:
Extracts
Extracts are made by quite literally extracting Mogroside V from the monk fruit. The end product can be either in liquid or powder form, and the Mogroside V concentration can vary highly in these extracts, from as low as 2% to as high as 80%. The higher the Mogroside V concentration, the sweeter the product. In case you prefer video... this video explains everything about monk fruit extracts in detail.
Best uses for extracts
Extracts are perfect if you just want to replace the sweetness of sugar, not its texture. For example, you can use them to add sweetness to coffee, tea, smoothies, cereal, yogurt, salad dressings, and even cocktails. These are all great use cases for monk fruit extracts.
However, if you want to bake, maybe some cookies, brownies, or that delicious cake you love, extracts will not work for you. As in that case, you would probably be looking to replace not only the sweetness of sugar but also the texture of sugar, and monk fruit extracts can’t do that. I personally like both and I use each for what they are best for. In my case, I use extracts for drinks, and blends for baking.
Liquid Extract
Liquid extracts are quite literally the concentrated juice of the fruit, nothing else. We press the fruit, extract its juice, and filter it multiple times to remove impurities and be left only with the good stuff. It could be produced with different Mogroside V concentrations but it’s usually sold in a concentration of 3.5%, and that’s probably because it works fairly well. It has a much more natural taste, and it’s 15x-20x sweeter than sugar.
This product contains the fruit’s natural sugars, which serve as a preservative and make it possible to avoid using any type of artificial sweetener. Liquid monk fruit extracts are delicious, and they are fairly convenient to use. Especially in drinks, because they dissolve immediately.
There’s other types of liquid monk fruit sweeteners that are made by combining powder monk fruit extract, water, and some type of preservative. Even though they are marketed as monk fruit extracts, I think they are better categorized as liquid monk fruit blends, because well, you are blending an extract with a filler (water) and a preservative.
I should say that the only downside of liquid extracts is that it’s recommended to keep them refrigerated after opening. This is because there’s a risk (even though it’s small) that airborne bacteria enters the bottle, and refrigeration significantly slows down the growth of any bacteria that may get in.
Example: This is the one we sell (get 30% off on your first purchase)
Solid Extracts (Powder)
Monk fruit powdered extracts are more refined than their liquid counterparts. They come in a variety of different Mogroside V (MV) concentrations, from 2% all the way up to 80%. The higher the MV concentration, the sweeter the extract. Also, the higher the concentration, the “cleaner” the taste, and the easier it is to dissolve. Of course, this translates to a higher price tag as well.
The most popular MV concentrations are 7-10%, 25%, and 50%. Below is a list of some of the top Monk Fruit Powder Extracts in the market for each of these MV concentrations, along with a description of each of these MV concentration types.
7-10% Mogroside V:
This one has a small monk fruit taste, which we like. It’s also more affordable, and although it’s very sweet (25x-35x sweeter than sugar), it’s not sweet enough to become an inconvenience…
Having said that, this product requires the use of a carrier to transform the monk fruit extract from liquid to powder. The liquid is too thick, so using a carrier is necessary. The industry’s carrier of choice is Maltodextrin, sometimes in concentrations of up to 30%.
As of to date, the brands selling this type of extracts don’t disclose the use of maltodextrin or any carrier on the label, even when they use them. How do I know? Well, because I bought all of them and tested them for starches. They all tested positive.
I don’t want to go too deep into this here, as I’ll be recording a separate video to address this specific issue. However, just know that monk fruit extracts with a mogroside V concentration of under 20% probably contains somewhere between 10%-30% maltodextrin. This doesn’t make it a bad product though… especially because you would be adding so little… but it’s something to keep in mind.
Example: We are working on a product of our own (coming soon), but for now, this a good option.
25% Mogroside V:
This one has less of a monk fruit taste, and it’s easier to dissolve. It’s about 90x sweeter than sugar. In other words, you need about 0.04gm to get a teaspoon-worth of sugar sweetness.
Example: We are working on a product of our own (coming soon), but for now, this a good option.
50% Mogroside V:
Finally, we have 50% MV extracts. These have much less of a monk fruit taste, and they dissolve much easier in water. However, they are more expensive, and they can be inconvenient to use. They are about 180x sweeter than sugar, so you only need 0.02gm to get a teaspoon-worth of sugar sweetness. Aside from that, they are great.
Example:
Over 50% Mogroside V:
There’s higher concentrations, but they are usually only used as an ingredient in manufacturing applications. They are so sweet that it becomes quite inconvenient to use at home.
Blends
Monk Fruit extracts (which are very sweet) are blended with fillers, like Erythritol and Allulose, (which are less sweet than sugar) to create a 1:1 sugar replacement. These blends are marketed as monk fruit sweeteners but they contain less than 1% of monk fruit extract, the rest is just fillers.
If this takes you by surprise, you are not alone. Most companies are not very transparent in their marketing when it comes to this. However, to be fair… it doesn’t mean that the product itself is bad. These extract+fillers blends (especially those in crystalline form) make it possible to replace not only the sweetness but also the texture of sugar. It might not make sense to sweeten your coffee with a blend, but it makes 100% sense to use as a sugar substitute in your next brownie recipe!
In case you prefer video... this video explains everything about monk fruit blends in detail.
Types of Monk Fruit Blends
So… Let’s say you are like me. You absolutely love cookies, brownies, and cakes, but you don’t like the calories that come along with them. In that case, you would probably want to give monk fruit blends a try. However, the next question you’ll probably have is… which type of monk fruit blend should I buy? So let’s explore some of the most popular monk fruit blends so you can decide which one is right for you.
Liquid Blends
This is a blend of powder monk fruit extract, water (as a diluent/filler), and some type of preservative. This formula allows for natural flavors to be added (which usually are not natural at all), so you may come across flavored versions of this sweetener. These are usually 20x-25x sweeter than sugar. The main downside is in its taste, especially for the unflavored ones… A lot of people describe their taste as artificial. We agree.
Examples:
Solid Blends
These are the ones that more closely resemble sugar. They are made using a variety of different fillers, and they are usually made to be a 1:1 sugar replacement, meaning they are just as sweet as sugar. The most popular blends include either Erythritol or Allulose as a filler, and they can be made in crystalline or powder form. They can also be white or brown, as we will see later.
Monk Fruit + Erythritol:
This is the most common monk fruit blend. Erythritol is about 70% as sweet as sugar, it has a very similar texture to sugar, and it provides virtually no calories. Erythritol works great as a filler, and you can use this blend for anything you would use sugar for.
But.. what is erythritol? Let’s explore that…
Erythritol is a sugar alcohol, which is a type of carbohydrate that’s not metabolized by the body. There’s many types of sugar alcohols, and you can recognize them because they end in “ol”, so you have erythritol, maltitol, xylitol, and others. They are used widely in a variety of different products, like Quest Bars, for example, which contain erythritol, and Think! bars, which contain Maltitol.
Keep in mind that all sugar alcohols are FODMAPs, which is a category of carbohydrates that are hard for the body to digest and can create digestive issues in some people, such as bloating, nausea, diarrhea, and others, especially when consuming large amounts. It’s not a problem for most people, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind, especially if you have a pre-existing condition like Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Finally, something you might want to know is that a study came out in 2023 bringing to light potential correlations between Erythritol consumption and a higher risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke. Many people have written about this, attesting that even though there’s correlation, there’s absolutely no evidence that supports causation.
Nevertheless, that study took the news by storm, and it pushed a lot of people away from erythritol just to be safe. Many of these people decided to move away from monk fruit blends altogether and use an extract instead… While others decided to simply use a different monk fruit blend with a different filler, and that brings us to our second type of monk fruit blend…
Examples:
I would say this is the second most popular monk fruit blend. It contains monk fruit extract and allulose, which has quickly become a very popular sweetener. Allulose is about 80% as sweet as sugar, has a very similar texture to sugar, and it has very few calories, about 10x less calories than sugar. Just like the erythritol blend, you can use allulose blends for anything you would use sugar for.
But.. again, what is Allulose? Let’s talk about it…
Allulose is not a sugar alcohol like erythritol. Allulose is actually a sugar, but it has a very special molecular structure that makes it very hard for the body to metabolize, and this is why it has so few calories.
Allulose is naturally found in fruits such as figs and raisins but in very small quantities. The allulose you find in the store is made through a multi-step process at an industrial scale. That doesn’t make it bad, just don’t be fooled… Brands love to tell you that allulose is found in figs but they don’t tell you that the one they sell to you actually comes from corn (which is the case for most allulose in the market today).
The same applies to erythritol. It can be found in fruits like grapes and peaches but at very low quantities… The one sold in stores comes from corn. I don’t want to go too deep into this in this video, but I’ll make a separate video on this later, and I’ll make sure to link it somewhere here.
The FDA recognized Allulose as safe back in 2012. However, something interesting to note is that Whole Foods doesn’t allow Allulose to be used as an ingredient in any product in their store, even though they do allow erythritol. I wasn’t able to find a specific reason why, but I think that they just want to give it more time in the market before allowing it in their stores.
Like everything else, only time will tell how good these products actually are, but what I can say is that I have personally consumed multiple erythritol and allulose products, and I have no complaints so far.
Example:
Others:
There’s also other, less common, blends using other fillers, including inulin and maltodextrin. Some companies also blend monk fruit and stevia with erythritol. As you can see, there’s plenty of options to choose from. However, they all have something in common: they are a blend of something very sweet (monk fruit extract) and something similar to sugar in sweetness, taste, and texture.
Conclusion
Extracts are ideal to replace the sweetness of sugar, but not the texture of sugar. Use extracts to add sweetness to drinks, cereals, dressings, etc. Choose either liquid of powder extracts based on the level of sweetness you are looking for and what you find more convenient to use.
If you want to replace the sweetness and texture of sugar, you are better off using a monk fruit blend. Choose between the different types of blends based on your preferences, this includes choosing the type of filler (erythritol or allulose) and the format (crystalline, powder, brown, or other).
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