Costco is currently selling two sugar replacements made with Monk Fruit and Erythritol. While the products look similar there are some important differences between them and I prefer one over the other.
Let’s take a closer look at your Costco options for Monk Fruit Sweeteners.
Whole Earth Sweeteners
From what I have read it looks like Costco used to sell a monk fruit sweetener from Lakonta but it looks like this product has been discontinued and replaced with products from the Whole Earth brand.
Monk fruit, a plant from Asia also known as luo han guo, can be dried and processed to create a sweetener that is about 200 times sweeter than sugar. We do not digest the sweetening compounds from monk fruit which makes it a naturally occurring zero calorie sweetener.
Monk fruit has a licorice type aftertaste.
Because you need so little monk fruit to replace sugar, combined with the presence of the licorice aftertaste, monk fruit is typically blended with other ingredients like erythritol. This reduces the aftertaste and makes measuring out the desired quantity easier.
Monk Fruit with Erythritol
The first monk fruit sweetener at Costco is the two pound bag of erythritol and monk fruit from Whole Earth.
Erythritol is a plant based sugar that can be found naturally but is typically produced by the fermentation of corn sugars. Erythritol is about 70% as sweet as sugar and when it is blended with just a little monk fruit, which is 200 times sweeter than sugar, the resulting product can be used as a 1 to 1 sugar replacement.
Erythritol is generally recognized as tasting pretty much just like sugar and does not have an aftertaste.
Erythritol does contain carbohydrates and this sweetener is labelled as containing 8 grams of carbs per 2 teaspoon serving. However, since these carbs are not digestible they “net out” making this a zero net carb sweetener.
The two pound bag of monk fruit and erythritol sweetener currently costs $8.99 at Costco which works out to $0.281 per ounce.
Monk Fruit with Stevia and Erythritol
The second monk fruit sweetener at Costco is the box containing 400 packets of a blend of erythritol, stevia extract and monk fruit.
Stevia is another natural, plant based sweetener which, like monk fruit, is a couple of hundred times sweeter than sugar. Stevia has no calories or carbohydrates.
Each packet holds 2 grams of sweetener which is considered a single serving.
This might just fall under the category of trivia but I find it interesting that the serving size for this sweetener (2 grams) is four times smaller than for the other sweetener (8 grams).
Stevia has an aftertaste that some people describe as metallic.
The box of 400 packets of monk fruit sweetener with stevia and erythritol costs $12.99. You can buy the exact same 400 count box of this sweetener at Walmart for $16.99.
While you do get a value when you buy this sweetener at Costco instead of Walmart please realize that putting the sweetener into small packets is costing you a lot of money.
The per ounce cost of the erythritol, stevia and monk fruit sweetener is $0.46. This makes the sweetener in the little packets about 40% more expensive than the sweetener in the two pound bag.
Which Sweetener is Better?
This is going to be a subjective coin toss based upon your needs.
From a flavor standpoint I prefer the sweetener with Stevia. Both sweeteners taste a heck of a lot like sugar and neither had the bad aftertaste I associate with most artificial sweeteners.
What I noticed though was while that the sweetener with just erythritol and monk fruit didn’t have an “aftertaste”, it did “stick” to my mouth. I would taste test a little dab of the sweetener and could still taste the sugary sweetness from it five minutes later.
In contrast, the sweetener with stevia had a cleaner profile that tasted sweet and then went away.
The packet size sweetener is convenient for adding to your coffee but realize that you are paying 40% extra for the packaging. The two pound bag of sweetener is your best bet if you want to use this product for baking.
