How to Sweeten Coffee Without Sugar
Interested in discovering smarter ways to make your morning cup of coffee just that bit healthier? We hear you!
There are dozens of ways to find a sugar substitute for coffee that won't set your blood sugar spiking before you've hit your desk, and they have some pretty amazing benefits to boot.
1. Sugar Free Coffee Syrups
Our top option is sugar free syrup for coffee - of course!
Skinny Mixes syrups are naturally sweetened with sucralose, produced from regular sugar, so there aren't any additives or synthetic substances.
Each syrup is zero-carb, zero-sugar, and zero-fat and tastes incredible in a steaming cup of espresso, protein shakes, smoothies, or iced teas.
If you love a silky Chai Latte, you have to try our Sugar Free Chai Syrup - it's a taste sensation, with a gorgeous smooth finish that is free of sugar, kosher, keto-friendly, and gluten-free.
2. Natural Honey
Honey has a natural sweetness that works well in most hot drinks - but you need to watch your portions!
It's best not to substitute any more than a third of your normal sugar intake with honey given the different chemical make-up, and too much can leave a gloopy undissolved layer in the bottom of your mug.
Manuka honey is the healthiest option, but it's also got about 33 calories in a (small!) teaspoon and comes in at a steep $30 per jar on average.
3. Agave Nectar
Like honey, agave is a natural sweetener - made from cacti if you didn't know!
It's a reasonable substitute to sweeten coffee, but it's also high in fructose, so it's a bit of a toss-up since most experts think fructose is worse for us than glucose.
The saving grace is that agave is a low-GI food product, so while it's not low-calorie, it's still better than sugar for people with type-2 diabetes.
4. Coconut Sugar
Coconut has been having a bit of a moment in the foodie world - there is everything from coconut oil to milk, juice, and now sugar derived from this hard-working nut.
This type of sugar is generally thought to be better than sugar for conditions where blood sugar levels matter, but it packs about the same amount of fructose as sugar, so it's not an obvious winner.
If you love the taste of coconut but want to control your calories, we'd recommend our Chocolate Coconut Macaron Syrup for a heavenly mocha-style barista brew.
5. Maple Syrup
Maple syrup makes us think of breakfast pancakes drizzled in the sweet stuff!
You can try maple syrup in your coffee, BUT there is a word of warning here too.
Most commercial maple syrups are diluted with corn syrup (another high fructose sugar alternative). You need natural syrup to avoid offsetting any health benefits you might have achieved by swapping your sugar.
6. Cinnamon
Ground cinnamon (not a clunky cinnamon stick!) is another way to change the flavor of your coffee if you need to banish the sugar calories but can't drink unsweetened coffee.
It takes a bit of getting used to, but some people find that the nutty flavor offsets a bitter coffee, so you can gradually reduce your sugar.
Benefits of Switching the Sugar in Your Coffee
Whichever option you go for, it's well worth taking the time to learn how to sweeten coffee without sugar to make your drinks healthier and tastier.
Cutting down on sugar in your daily coffee might not seem like a massive lifestyle change, but it can make a huge difference to your overall carbs, calories, and fructose!
Let's put some facts behind that:
- A teaspoon is about five grams of sugar - somewhere around 20 calories.
- If you have three coffees or teas a day, that's 60 calories (and approximately 2.5% of your total recommended consumption).
- Over a year, removing sugar from your coffee earns you a notable 22,000 extra calories - small wins add up to big results!
Skinny Mixes syrups make it easy to break the sugar habit, and we understand that if you're addicted to a luxurious caramel coffee, it's not something you want to give up altogether! Our goal is to make it easier to make mindful choices about our health and nutrition without sacrifice.
Try out the syrup of your choosing, or go for a sampler bundle to test our best-selling coffee syrup flavors and see what concoctions you can come up with to keep your taste buds happy and your blood sugar in tip-top shape.