Category: Food

Recipe & Product Review: Fruit Vinegar-Flavored Water, the Closest Drink I’ve Found to Fruit Juice

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Left to right: Apple cider vinegar, date vinegar, and raspberry vinegar.

Before I got diabetes, I used to love fruit juice. It’s one of the things I miss most and there really are no good zero-carb substitutes. I’ve found a few kombuchas that I like, but all have at least a few carbs per cup. Not too bad, but not really worth taking medication for. 

Recently, though, I found that I could add apple cider vinegar to water to get a really great sour apple juice flavor. I tried searching for other fruit vinegars, but everything I found had significant amounts of sugar, until u/ChezLuc, on Reddit, pointed me to Supreme Vinegar. They have a huge range of different kinds of vinegars, including 12 fruit vinegars. I e-mailed the company and all have “almost no residual sugar,” except for pineapple (1 g/15 mL). I tested my blood sugar after drinking ~50 mL of the raspberry and didn’t see any rise, so I’m pretty sure they’re telling the truth.

Here’s my thoughts on the raspberry and date flavors (rest were out of stock) and a couple recipe ideas:

  • Raspberry: I really like this flavor. Basically tastes like berries with the sugar removed, though more like blackberry than raspberry. The flavor is very strong (about twice as strong as apple cider vinegar for the same ratio). Surprisingly, it wasn’t very acidic compared with the apple cider vinegar I get from Costco, even though both claim to be diluted to 5% acidity. Maybe there’s something else in the apple that makes it more sour? 
  • Date: This tasted exactly like dates with the sugar removed and was also not very acidic. Personally, I don’t love dates, so this wasn’t my favorite. If you do like dates, though, this would probably be pretty good. 
  • Recipes:
    • Basic: 
      • 20:1 volume ratio of water to vinegar
      • Mix and serve
    • Sweetened: 
      • 20:1 volume ratio of water to vinegar
      • Sweetener to taste. I use 2 drops liquid sucralose or 10g allulose

Overall, I’m really enjoying these and have been drinking a ton of the raspberry vinegar-water over the last week. I’m definitely going to order the rest of Supreme’s flavors once they’re back in stock. I’m especially looking forward to the peach.


– QD

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Maple Syrup Taste Test: 4 Home-Made vs. 4 Store-Bought, all Low-Carb

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Following up on my French Toast post, I wanted to try find a good zero-carb maple syrup to go along with it. On Reddit, u/botrock22 recommended All-u-Lose; I also found several other brands on Amazon that looked pretty good. I also did a search for low-carb or keto maple syrup recipes and found a couple that looked promising.

To figure out which I liked best, I decided to do a taste test.

Contenders:

I assessed each syrup on the following factors:

  • Calories
  • Net carbs
  • Ingredients
  • Cost
  • Taste
  • Texture

Here’s the results:

Note: After I bought it, I noticed the Sweet-Like-Syrup brand uses isomaltose as the sweetener. Isomaltose is not low carb (GI = 35), so I didn’t try it.

For me, homemade version #2 (24 wt% water) was the clear winner, probably because it was adjusted to my taste preference. It had a strong maple flavor, was thick enough to cling to the french toast while still spreading easily, and didn’t have any unpleasant aftertaste. It was also extremely easy to make and cheaper to boot. I’m going to start keeping a batch around for French toast, pancakes, and other deserts.

I’ve included the recipe below if you want to make it yourself.


Hope you enjoy it!

– QD

Low-Carb Maple Syrup

QD
A simple low-carb maple syrup
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 1 minute
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 36 minutes
Servings 500 mL
Calories 1 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 250 g allulose
  • 5 g molasses
  • 80 g water
  • 2 tsp maple extract
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract

Instructions
 

  • Combine allulose, molasses, and water in a pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer.
  • Cover and simmer for 15 min., then let cool for 20 min. and stir in the maple and vanilla extracts.
  • Transfer to a sealable container and serve or store.

Notes

0.2g net carb/tbsp.
Nutrition information calculated by adding up macros of the individual ingredients. Allulose not included in total or net carbs.

Nutrition

Serving: 1tbspCalories: 1kcalCarbohydrates: 0.2g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was in the comments

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– QD

Low Carb Maple Syrup

Yield: ~500 mL

Author: QD

prep time: 1 Mcook time: 35 Mtotal time: 36 M

 

ingredients:

 

  • 250 g allulose
  • 5 g molasses
  • 80 g water
  • 2 tsp. maple extract
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

 

instructions:

How to cook Low Carb Maple Syrup

 

  1. Combine allulose, molasses, and water in a pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer.
  2. Cover and simmer for 15 min., then let cool for 20 min. and stir in the maple and vanilla extracts.
  3. Transfer to a sealable container and serve or store.

Calories

1

Net Carbs(grams)

0.2

Calculated per tablespoon.

Created using The Recipes Generator