Stevia strikes again

Remember the stevia in Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea?

It has surfaced again!

Yesterday I stopped at Wegmans looking for tea. I had in mind some of those yummy Christmas brews, but they were all sold out, just a couple of Sugar Cookie Sleigh Rides sitting there forlornly on these empty shelves. So I bought Bengal Spice and a Chai Tea. My sister had told me how great Bengal Spice was.

Upon arriving home I tried it. And there it was! That telltale sort of jolt of sweetness. What is it about this stevia? Those are stevia leaves pictured above. Stevia just jumps out at you.

I looked at the box. Sure enough, there it was in the fine print: "Natural flavors."

Why don't they just put "stevia"?

Why do they have to fib about it?

It's not as if I really mind. Even the Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride, I kind of warmed up to that. I have been drinking it and enjoying it. It does taste like sugar cookies, darn it, and if stevia was what they needed to do that, so what.

Now that I am aware of it, I have even detected stevia in my favorite blend ...

... Sugar Plum Spice. Or here is the old box where they used to get to say Christmas and not Holiday.

I still love Sugar Plum Spice. I can't stop loving this tea just because I have learned there is stevia in it.

But why not put it? S-T-E-V-I-A Stevia?

They must figure people don't want it.

But if they figure people don't want it, why do they use it?

This reminds me of my Leonard Pennario book. There are things I puzzle over. I will catch myself sitting there, chin in hand, thinking: "But if this ... why that?"

There was this tea once at the Hoowa Supermarket that I need in situations like this. The box said: "For When You Need To Relax And Put Things in Perspective." I was just laughing about that last week with some friends. I could use that tea now.

I wonder if there was stevia in it?

As the Magic Stevia 8-Ball would say ...

It is decidedly so!