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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. 

What are Monk Fruit 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!

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. 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:

Monk Fruit + Allulose: 

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).