![Stevia by Angie Ouellette-Tower for godsgrowinggarden.com photo 2014-10-07_zps908c04c9.jpg](https://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o501/AngieOuelletteTower/Sweetness/2014-10-07_zps908c04c9.jpg)
Drying Stevia for a Natural Tea Sweetener
Stevia is an amazingly sweet herb that is now being processed as a sugar substitute in such products as: "Truvia".
The Stevia plant is very easy to grow and harvesting the leaves for use as a tea sweetener is just as simple as the growing process.
Before I go through the simple steps of dehydrating leaves for Winter Tea sweetening - I wanted to talk about the nutritional content of the Stevia leaf.
Stevia is non-caloric & is said to lower blood sugar because it decreases absorption of glucose in the gut. Stevia is also full of antioxidants and might aid with heart conditions, water retention & even heartburn. Stevia also contains many vitamins & minerals that are obviously not present in artificial sweeteners. (remember - I am NOT a doctor and this is NOT medical advice - it is simply information from research that I did online - read my disclaimer at the end of this post).
![Stevia by Angie Ouellette-Tower for godsgrowinggarden.com photo 005_zps058f1b3c.jpg](https://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o501/AngieOuelletteTower/Sweetness/005_zps058f1b3c.jpg)
Begin by snipping each perfect leaf off of the stem (by perfect leaf I mean something has not been chewed by a squirrel or insect & a leaf that does not have a disease like blight).
Rinse the leaves & dry them (see picture above)
After you have prepared the Stevia leaves simply spread them out on your dehydrating trays (see picture below)
![Stevia by Angie Ouellette-Tower for godsgrowinggarden.com photo 009_zps5d71ada5.jpg](https://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o501/AngieOuelletteTower/Sweetness/009_zps5d71ada5.jpg)
Turn on your dehydrator at the manufacturers suggested
setting until dehydrated (it took my Stevia leaves only about 7 hours before they
were dry) See picture below.
![Stevia by Angie Ouellette-Tower for godsgrowinggarden.com photo 012_zps93c8093c.jpg](https://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o501/AngieOuelletteTower/Sweetness/012_zps93c8093c.jpg)
Then, when you are steeping a pot of tea add a few crushed dried Stevia leaves & make sure you allow enough time for the tea to properly steep (to extract all of the delicious sweetness from the leaves). Strain, serve & ENJOY
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I always use sugar in my tea, but never thought of using stevia leaves instead. I really have to try to get my hands on that plant!
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