Organic Raw Blue Agave Nectar is perfect for everyone, including raw-food enthusiasts! This amber nectar has a distinct and delicious flavor that genuinely enhances foods' natural sweetness. It is certified Organic, Fair Trade, GMO-Free, and appropriate for vegan and plant-based diets. It is stable, non-crystallizing and quick dissolving. Wholesome Sweetners' Organic Raw Agave nectar is a pure and natural sweetener extracted from the heart of the blue agave plant.

* Sweet, mild nectar is 25% sweeter than sugar (so more is less!)
* A perfect multi-purpose sweetener for beverages, fresh fruit and general table-top use
* Glycemic index of 39 or less; Natural sweetness without the blood sugar spike
* Raw Blue Agave is non-crystallizing and quick dissolving.
* Specially produced at low temperatures and mildly filtered, it has a full, natural flavor

Cooking tips:
* Use as a one-for-one replacement for sugar, then adjust to your own personal taste. Some chefs prefer to use 75% as much Blue Agave nectar as they would sugar in a recipe, but others prefer a straight 1:1 replacement.
* Reduce the other liquids in a recipe by up to 30%.
* Cook lower and slower: reduce your baking temperature by about 25 degrees and bake for a little longer.

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 Tablespoon (21g)
Calories per serving: 60
Calories from fat: 0
Total fat (g): 0
Saturated fat (g): 0
Cholesterol (mg): 0
Sodium (mg): 0
Total carbohydrate (g):16
Dietary fiber (g): 0
Sugars (g): 16
Proteins (g): 0
Calcium (mg): 0
Iron (mg): 0

Ingredients: Organic Raw Amber Agave nectar (from blue agave)
Gluten Free

The pH of Organic Blue Agave syrup is 4.3 to 4.8, which makes it very stable and prevents fermentation. While we recommend storing Organic Blue Agave syrup with the lid on and in a dark cool environment, refrigeration is optional. The recommended shelf life is 2-years after opening, but we have NEVER met anyone who needed to test that limit. It's too delicious to last that long!

Agave Cultivation and Production

Blue agave shapes its native landscape, adding color and character to thousands of acres of Jalisco's subtropical region. Blue agave (Agave tequilana var. Weber), a member of the Amaryllis family, is a slow-growing plant that spreads runners from a "mother" plant. The runners are then harvested and replanted; some are cultivated for blue agave nectar (or tequila), while others become new mother plants. Grown to USDA Organic Standards, the agave is cultivated and processed without chemicals or genetic modification.

After growing for 5 to 7 years, a mature blue agave stands 6 to 8 feet tall and its "sugar" is at its peak. The blue agave's treasure is held in the pina (so called because it resembles a pineapple after the leaves have been trimmed away). Wax in the blue agave's long leaves gives the species its bluish color. Farmers hand-cut the blue agave with a simple razor-sharp blade. (A skilled farmer can cut and trim a 100- pound blue agave pina in less than 5 minutes.) The field trimmings are left behind to restore the soil and reduce erosion. The fibrous blue agave pina is taken to the mill where it is pressed and its inulin-rich juice is collected and cleaned.

Inulin, a dietary fiber made up of complex carbohydrates, is not sweet by nature. Heating (or hydrolyzing) the inulin transforms it into sweet nectar. When making the Light Blue Agave nectar, the juice is heated to 161ºF (72ºC). However, when making the Raw Blue Agave nectar, the process is lower and much slower: the juice is warmed slowly and the low heat is maintained for nearly twice as long. In this simple process, the inulin becomes fructose, a slowly metabolizing simple sugar found in many fruits and vegetables.

When agave pinas are crushed, the collected liquid oxidizes (much in the same way an apple turns brown when exposed to air). Filtering determines the blue agave nectars' flavor and color. According to Wholesome Sweeteners's preferences, the Light Blue Agave is simply more filtered than its Raw-Amber counterpart. Light Blue Agave enhances food's natural flavors while Raw Blue Agave imparts a rich, subtly complex sweetness. Whether Light or Raw, the end result is the same: a sweet, low glycemic organic nectar that's perfect for baking, beverages, fresh fruit and table top use.

Origin: Mexico - Certified Organic