Ideal Bite

I think it's also worth pointing out that Wholesome Sweeteners and Equal Exchange are also sources of fair trade sugar. Buying organic sugar is generally a good thing, but buying fair trade organic sugar (and coffee, tea, chocolate, bananas, and rice) is better.

I would freaking LOVE to try maple sugar. I love any and everything maple. (Trader Joes had a pretty good cheaper, organic sugar)

Maple sugar is to die for. THE BEST! But as I don't live DownEast, it is only an occasional treat for us, rather than the norm. Did I see Honey mentioned anywhere? There are beekeepers local to almost everywhere. Honey is liquid, of course (most of the time, anyway. I have a well crystallized jar in the back of the pantry - but will re-liquid it by setting it in a pan of warm water). Super sweet, you use 1/2 as much honey in a recipe as sugar, usually, and a tad less liquid (or not). Another very sweet thing is to take wheat berries and barely sprout them. This is what "malting" is. Then dry them and grind them - or just chew them! It is intensely sweet and can be used for a sugar substitute as well. I think this is what treacle syrup is made of. You can toast them slightly before grinding as well.

It wouldn't at all surprise me if that "study" linking artificial sweeteners to weight gain had been funded by the sugar industry who wanted to devise some scare tactic to get us to eat even MORE sugar than we already do. BALONEY! Give me my aspartame! (I usually take the results of most medical "studies" with a HUGE grain of salt, suspecting, as I do, that many of these "studies" are funded by special interest groups with a vested interest in the results, and, with the recent news that a recent major lung cancer "study" was funded by a tobacco company, my suspicions have been deepened, if not totally confirmed.) Also, just because something is natural doesn't mean that it's necessarily good for you. For example, toadstools are natural, but they can kill you! As for Domino's organic sugar, that's worth a try since it's from Domino, and it's readily available.

Dottie, I don't live "Down East," either, but I DO live in New England ("Down East" is a reference to Maine, only. I'm in Connecticut). I, too, enjoy maple flavoring (one of my favorite ice cream flavors is maple walnut), and there are many places to get maple anything around here. As a matter of fact, there's a maple sugarhouse not far from me. I've discovered, though, that maple seems to be one of those flavors that folks either like or don't, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground.

Another sweetener to try is Brown Rice syrup. I use it in all of my baking in place of brown or white sugar. Just omit some other liquid to make it work out. It tastes great and is gluten free as well!

Xylitol is also a great sweetner. It's a bit lighter in taste than sugar but works and tastes the same in baking and coffee. It also actually helps to repel plaque from the teeth and is easier on blood sugar absorption. I think the Now Foods brand is the best.

Don't forget about beet sugar from Michigan! There are lots of organic beet sugar brands at my whole foods store and I can't even tell the difference between cane sugar and beet sugar.

Most of the sugar in my region comes from sugar beets, not sugar cane. Do you know if the same issues apply?

I've never used straight xylitol, but I've had hard candies sweetened with xylitol and they're very good, ALMOST as good as aspartame. Remember cyclamate? That was a good artificial sweetener back in the '70s. However, it was taken off the market because it caused cancer in lab mice or lab rats, whatever, but that was because, proportionally speaking, they fed those critters with FAR more cyclamate than the average person would ingest over a lifetime. Also, it's been proven in recent years that the lab test results they get with mice/rats don't often translate to humans. In other words, they may get promising results with mice/rats, but then when they try the same tests on humans, the results are disappointing.