"agave syrup" news and stories

Every so often I go through phases where I try to reduce the amount of refined white sugar I eat (this is obviously not one of them, given the fact that I was baking a cake last night). It's during those times that I've acquired a variety of different sweeteners, including sucanat (basically slightly healthier cane sugar), a very large bottle of honey and a smaller squirt-bottle of agave nectar. I'm not a huge fan of the chemically constructed artificial sweeteners, I've never been able to get over their bitter aftertaste, so I haven't done any cooking with them.

Agave nectar (Nicole wrote about it here on Slashfood last February) has become my favorite substitute for sugar in drinks like iced tea and chai and now the very clever David Lebovitz has found a way to use it in agave-sweetened chocolate ice cream in order to create a frozen treat that rests at the low end of the glycemic index. I think I need to make room in my freezer for my ice cream bowl and try this one out.

If you check out the labels on natural food products, you'll see agave syrup listed as an ingredient more and more often. Agave syrup - sometimes called agave nectar - is a natural sweetener that is marketed as a healthy alternative to processed sugars, as well as an alternative to honey, corn syrup and similar liquid sweeteners. The syrup is made from blue agave, a type of succulent, cactus-like plant that is also used in the production of tequila. The thick liquid comes in light and dark forms, the latter being unfiltered, and tastes similar to honey.

So what makes this syrup "healthier" than other sweeteners? It has a very low Glycemic Index (GI) value, so although it is noticeably sweeter than sugar, it doesn't cause the same type of "sugar rush" that other sweets do. Table sugar has a GI value of 68, on a scale from 1 to 100, while honey comes in at 55. Agave syrup has a value of around 15.

Agave syrup can be used in baked goods, with a reduction in the amount of liquid in the recipe to account for its presence. Starting with a recipe that already calls for honey and substituting it in is a good way to start, but as a general rule, you'll will need to spend some time playing around with your favorite recipes to get them to work, especially if you want to substitute it into a recipe that calls for crystallized sugars. The syrup will dissolve easily in liquids and is a good choice for sweetening iced tea or lemonade.