Video

This is a video version of this article in case you prefer watching over reading :)

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 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.

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.

This is the one we sell (link):

This is a quick video showing how it does not impact blood sugar levels:

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. 

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, which is a combination of monk fruit extract with a filler like Allulose and Erythritol.