Plants that taste sweet without sugar

General Discussions
1

I now know of seven different plant orders that contain a species that grows a unique compound that tastes sweet without sugar:

Asterales order, Asteraceae family:
Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana)

Brassicales order, Pentadiplandraceae family:
Oubli fruit (Pentadiplandra brazzeana)

Cucurbitales order, Cucurbitaceae family:
Monkfruit (Siraitia grosvenorii)

Ranunculales order, Menispermaceae family:
Serendipity berry (Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii)
Serendipity berry (Dioscoreophyllum volkensii)
Serendipity berry (Dioscoreophyllum gossweileri)

Rosacales order, Rosaceae family:
Sweetleaf raspberry (Rubus chingii var. suavissimus)

Ericales order, Sapotaceae family:
Miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum)

Zingiberales order, Marantaceae family:
Katempfe (Thaumatococcus daniellii)

Stevia and sweetleaf raspberry seem particularly valuable because they can be grown in temperate climates. Stevia is hardy to zone 9, but it can be grown as an annual. Sweetleaf raspberry is hardy to zone 6. Sadly, sweetleaf raspberry has thorns.

Monkfruit may be possible in temperate climates. It’s a perennial cucurbit that is fully tropical, but it grows tuberous roots. Maybe those could be dug up and stored in a refrigerator through the winter, and then planted out again in the spring?

The thing I find most exciting about this is that all seven of those plants are not only part of different plant families, but even plant orders. Which implies that this sort of trait is probably findable in other places, too.

Does anyone know of more species that are sweet without sugar to add to the list?

4 Likes
2

I just heard about Mangelwurzel the other day. Halfway between a beet and a sugar beet. Not as earthy tasting as a beet, sweeter, massive, and gives you chard-like (or beet-like) leaves to eat as well. I notice now you don’t have sugar beets on that list either. Beta vulgaris has some sneaky sweet friends. :joy:

3

Yacon. And some winter squashes. We also grow sugar beet.

2 Likes
4

Both beets and winter squashes still contain glucose, don’t they? I’m pretty sure that’s the source of their sweetness.

Yacon and sunchokes are an interesting point. They’re both high in inulin, which is a fiber that tastes sweet, like sugar. I didn’t think of considering them!

5

There is some kind of basil that grows wild in my garden. I don’t know what it’s called or where it came from, but it smells and tastes like juicy fruit chewing gum. Pineapple sage is similar especially in smell but not so much it taste.

1 Like
6

That sounds like a nifty volunteer!

7

I was hoping you might have an idea of what it is.

8

Ooo I’ve never heard of sweet leaf raspberry, about how sweet is it do you know? I’d love to try hybridizing it with the wild black raspberry to up its hardiness if it even imparts a little sweetness as I love plain raspberry leaf tea

9

Aztec sweet herb, Lippia dulcis, in the Verbenaceae family. It’s perennial in the tropics, dunno how well it’d do in temperate areas. It layers easily for me into pots, so I imagine it may grow well as a houseplant over the winter?

1 Like
10

Here are my notes about sweetleaf raspberry:

“Hardy to zone 6. Unfortunately, it has thorns. However, the leaves are an artificial sweetener similar to stevia. I kind of want to grow these anyway, in order to try crossing them with thornless raspberries and see if I can get that trait into my population. It seems like it would be easy to grow raspberries as a perennial here than stevia.”

I know it’s used as an artificial sweetener in China, and it’s tough to find the plants anywhere, but the powder is buyable. I haven’t bought it yet. Even though it has thorns, I – I want to try it! (And try crossing it with my thornless raspberries and see if I can get a thornless sweetleaf raspberry to propagate more with, of course.)

@norris Ooh, I’ve never heard of Lippia dulcis before, and that plant sounds interesting! The high quantity of camphor means it wouldn’t be as suitable for sweetening things as, say, stevia – but camphor is a useful decongestant, so if nothing else, it might make for a tasty leaf to chew on while seasonal allergies are starting. What does it taste like for you? Does it taste more sweet than bitter?

I wonder if it would be possible to grow it as an annual in places that freeze. How long does it seem to need to make seeds?

1 Like
11

I’m afraid I’ve never heard of that type of basil before. It sounds very interesting; I’d like to know what it is, too. Does it have a typical basil flavor, as well as the juicy fruit chewing gum flavor, or is it only the latter?

12

I just learned about two more species from someone on the Tropical Fruit Forum!

Brassicales order, Capparaceae family:
Mabinlang (Capparis masaikai)

Asparagales order, Hypoxidaceae family:
Tambaka / lamba (Curculigo latifolia)

Both are unfortunately tropical. But . . .

This is really exciting, guys! That now makes ten species (including the Aztec sweet herb mentioned above) that produce an artificial sweetener. And all of them are in different plant families, two each being in the Brassicales and Asparagales orders.

All but one of them are tropical perennials. (All but two, if you count stevia growing as an annual in colder climates.) But the fact that there are so many implies that there are probably many more. Some may already be cold hardy enough to be suitable to grow in temperate climates. Others may be willing to adapt to grow in colder winters.

Mabinlang may be possible to adapt to grow in colder places, for instance. I don’t know how cold hardy it is, but caper (Capparis spinosa) is in the same genus, and it looks like it’s a zone 8b plant. So there may be potential there. Not only that, mabinlang is more than sweet – it also has the ability to make sour foods taste sweet, just like miracle fruit (which is a zone 11 plant). That’s very promising!

It is incredibly cool to learn that a trait like this isn’t as rare as I had been thinking. All of these species have a different chemical compound that tastes sweet without containing any sugar, and many of them are proteins.

1 Like
13

You can reset your taste buds so that a whole range of vegetables start to taste sweet to you. If you eliminate all fruit, sugar, and sweeteners from your diet for a period of time, your taste buds will reset, and vegetables can start to taste actually sweet. I have experienced that–steamed broccoli and green beans tasting sweet. So sweet that I would’ve sworn they had added sugar on them, if I hadn’t prepared them myself (raw veggies, briefly blanched in plain water). Also raw cucumbers and lettuce tasting sweet.
Most of the literature that I’ve read on this says that it takes something like 28 days of no sweeteners to reset your taste buds. For me just 5 days was long enough to get that effect. I’ve never made it longer than a week without eating something sweet–but i would like to try the 28 days sometime. To be clear, we’re talking no fruit, no sugar, no honey, no syrups, no chewing gum, no hidden sugar (e.g. ketchup, salad dressing, marinades, chips, snack crackers), and no alternative sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit, aspartame. Also, in my case I was only eating low carb vegetables (no carrots, no corn, no winter squash, etc). I found that when I’m doing this, avoiding all sweeteners, I also have to switch my toothpaste to something like EarthPaste Unsweetened or just sprinkle some baking soda on my toothbrush. Because as my taste buds are resetting, getting hit with a sugar bomb of standard toothpaste is strangely gross. Likewise flavored dental flosses and chapsticks. Resetting your taste buds is not something that is likely to happen in our current modern setting, unless you’re committed and intentional about it. But I imagine that in the history of humanity, people have naturally experienced this seasonally.

3 Likes
14

If you consider Licroise & Anise as a Sweet Flavor then I’d Add

  • American Sweet Cicely (Osmorhiza longistylis)
  • European Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata)
  • Anise seed (Pimpinella anisum)
  • Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)

Brassica veggies like Kale after frost don’t count right?

1 Like
15

I believe all of those plants get their sweetness from sugar. If you know of an exact chemical compound in them that tastes sweet that isn’t a sugar compound (glucose, fructose, sucrose, etc.), that would count, though.

Anything that gets sweeter after frost is definitely sweet because of sugar – the plant converts all its starch into sugar as a natural antifreeze. Sunchokes and yacon do the same thing, breaking down their fiber (inulin) into easier-to-digest shorter-chain carbohydrates, a.k.a. sugars. That’s why they taste sweeter in winter, and are also easier to digest.

2 Likes
16

That’s very interesting, but at the same time . . . I truly enjoy the pleasure I get out of eating sweet things. I wouldn’t want to lose the ability to take pleasure in one of my favorite sensations. You know?

I would love for vegetables to taste much sweeter, but not at the cost of no longer being able to enjoy fruits. Sweet fruits are my favorites.

In any case, I do often taste sweetness in vegetables, and that’s what I enjoy about them. Carrots are quite sweet, especially when they’re cooked, and broccoli in winter is yuuuuummy. :kissing_closed_eyes:

1 Like
17

Really!? The Licorice flavor in Apiaceae is actually Sugar? I mean it taste pseudo sweet or Sweet Adjacent & not Beet or Sugar Cane sweet.

Surely they probably taste sweeter in after frost but Sweet Cicely still tasted sweet in Late Spring when Flowering. It might just have a flavor compound that taste sweet & truly not contain any sugar? Does it still count?

18

Hmm. “Sweet cicely contains a natural compound called anethole, which is sweeter than sucrose.” That could count, then!

1 Like
19

Interesting, why am I getting the feeling that everything is sweeter than sucrose :joy:

20

Is there a plan out there or plants that after eating by to them everything tastes sweet