First off I would love to know how Teavanna has come to 25 calories per teaspoon of German Rock Sugar. Seeing as all it is is Beet Sugar, during war times it was hard for Germany to get sugar refined from sugar cane so they started refining it from the roots of the sugar beet. Unless Teavanna is processing this sugar with something else it will have the exact same nutritional values and glycemic values as cane sugar, its the same with raw sugar as well, it is all pure sucrose and that is a chemical compound that does not change naturally. That said Teavanna could very well be processing this rock sugar adding more calories, to it and if that is the case I would like to be informed so I can purchase it elsewhere.
The benefit of using beet sugar is to add sweetness to your tea without altering the flavor of the tea itself. I believe there is a complete lack of molasses that you would normally have from cane sugar, or if it does have molasses in it, it won’t be the same type as cane sugar seeing as they are from different plants. Which brings me to a plausible but most likely impossible fact to prove. Beets are extremely high in antioxidants, leading some people to claim beet sugar (rock sugar) also contains similar antioxidant properties.
What I can confirm is that Beet Sugar will softly sweeten your tea without really affecting the flavor of it. I used to be a huge raw sugar fan until my Omi found out and nearly BEET the crap out of me! She insisted I try German Rock Sugar in my tea and well I am glad I listened to the 69 year old German lady, because she knew what she was talking about.
I am sure there are plenty of places that you can obtain this sugar, Teavanna does not have a special supply of magical sugar or anything; however for me it was worth the extra couple bucks for the convenience of Teavanna being close to home. I paid $9 and change for a pound of this from teavanna I was paying $6 for 450g of raw sugar from the grocery store.
Long story short: A little pricey, but certainly worth the extra couple of dollars in my opinion. But hey try it out for yourself!
