5 Natural Sweeteners to Enhance Your Smoothies

Fruit smoothies are a great choice as a filling breakfast, a quick pick-me-up snack, or even a delightful dessert. There are a number of refreshing smoothie recipes that will allow you to prepare a drink that both tastes great and is rich in essential nutrients. Whether your go-to is green juice, a classic strawberry and banana blend, or an açaí-based beverage, sweetening your smoothie can seem counterintuitive to its nutritional value. However, natural sweeteners such as honey, agave nectar, blackberry leaf, maple syrup, and monk fruit are an excellent alternative to artificial sweeteners, and work better to enhance your smoothie with a perfect balance of flavor.

Among the many benefits of using natural sweeteners is the fact that they are not processed. Additionally, natural sweeteners at least contain some trace amounts of nutrients. While natural sweeteners contain some calories that artificial varieties often do not, your smoothie will surely benefit from a hint of natural ingredients, which you can also customize to complement the flavors of your fruit and vegetable ingredients.

A team effort between the nectar of flowers and ingenuity of bees, honey contains nutrients and antioxidants with indications of various health benefits. There are so many different types of honey, each one with its own specific flavor and color, allowing you to choose which one will best suit your favorite smoothie recipe. Examples of floral-forward honey include orange blossom, clover, and macadamia nut honey. If you want a more fruity honey to add to your smoothie, blueberry, blackberry, and wildflower honey are great choices. Both alfalfa honey and buckwheat honey are particularly spicy, if you want a bit of warmth to sweeten your smoothies.

There is a wide range of smoothies that will perfectly pair with your preferred flavor of honey. Try an Elvis-inspired smoothie with peanut butter, banana, and yogurt as the base ingredients, with a bit of clover honey to sweeten the mix. Choose an orange blossom honey to brighten up a banana berry smoothie to provide a well-balanced sweetness and floral flavor. If you’re preparing a warming winter smoothie with bananas, carrots, and zucchini, using honey with a touch of spiciness will flawlessly complement the overall flavor profile. Any way you choose to use honey in your smoothie, it will be a winning combination.

Either called agave syrup or nectar, this naturally occurring sweetener originates from the blue agave plant. A typical vegan alternative to honey, agave is sweeter than standard white sugar but with a considerably lower glycemic index, meaning that you will need less of it to sweeten your smoothie to achieve the same level of taste. It is also rich in B vitamins and dietary fiber, making it a particularly nutritious choice and a great match for almost any smoothie recipe you can imagine.

Berry-based smoothies, particularly those of the strawberry variety, are excellent for elevating with a touch or more of agave nectar. Using the natural flavor of agave is the perfect counter to tart and tangy berries, adding just enough sweetness without overpowering the fruit. You can also add some more naturally sweet fruit flavor by including bananas and dates in your smoothie. With agave, remember that a little bit goes a long way and to get creative with your ingredient mixes.

Blackberry leaves have a variety of uses in both Eastern and Western medicine and make a fantastic alternative sweetener to swap in place of sugar for any of your favorite smoothie recipes, particularly those with blackberry as a main ingredient. Also known as Rubus suavissimus, blackberry leaves have a glycemic index of zero and contain a naturally occurring sweetener thought to be nearly 100 times as sweet-tasting as typical cane sugar. Whether you’re preparing a very berry smoothie, focusing mainly on the blackberry fruit paired alongside other ingredients, or making a super green smoothie with a larger ratio of vegetables to fruit, the blackberry leaf is an ideal choice to level up the sweetness with a lighter touch.

Try using either a dropper with blackberry leaf extract or a small portion in powder form, which you can buy or grind up yourself from blackberry leaves, in your next smoothie, and the amplified sweetness will astound you. Give your smoothie an herbal twist by combining blackberries and sage leaves with the other fruits, vegetables, and yogurt of your choosing. Remember that less is more when it comes to adding in blackberry leaf sweetener. Make it an extra green version with the addition of fresh kale or spinach. However you choose to include blackberry leaves as a sweetener, your smoothie will taste especially satisfying.

Maple syrup, a concentrate made from the naturally occurring sap of maple trees, has a stronger and more distinctive flavor than many other sweeteners, making it a great natural alternative to white sugar or artificial sweeteners, particularly if you intend to use ingredients in your smoothie that would complement the maple taste. There are four types of maple syrup grades, of which golden or amber would be the best choices in terms of taste and texture. It’s also worth noting that maple syrup goes especially well with breakfast-adjacent flavors, such as those in a banana bread-inspired smoothie containing bananas, oats, yogurt, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Similarly, a blueberry smoothie sweetened with maple syrup will recall the delightful taste of a berry-topped French toast meal.

For protein-rich smoothies, maple syrup is a must to provide both natural sweetness and an ideal level of carbohydrate-powered energy prior to a spirited workout. Adding a portion of chocolate or peanut butter-flavored protein powder into your favorite smoothie will pair well with a pure maple syrup of lighter consistency. This natural sweetener is a powerful and versatile ingredient for amazing smoothies.

Named for the Buddhist monks who originally cultivated the fruit, monk fruit sweetener has made a more recent appearance in the U.S. food scene, with the FDA’s 2010 approval for its use in food and beverage products. Making monk fruit sweetener begins with the fruit being crushed to release the naturally occurring juice. Hot water is then added, allowing the sweet liquid to infuse before filtering. This is followed by an extraction and separation process, after which the finished product is spray-dried into a powder, thus creating what is known as monk fruit sugar. With a taste that is similar to sugar but not entirely like it, monk fruit makes a great naturally occurring sweetener alternative for plenty of different smoothies.

Another important note about monk fruit sugar is that, in pure form, it is considered keto-friendly. This means that you can make a delicious smoothie with frozen strawberries, avocado, and unsweetened almond milk sweetened with monk fruit sugar that accommodates your dietary needs. Double-check the ingredients of any store-bought monk fruit sweetener to ensure it isn’t mixed with sugar alcohols such as erythritol, which would negate its keto-friendly properties. For those not on a keto diet, try a smoothie mixture of spinach, kale, Granny Smith apples, fresh ginger, and coconut water, with a hint of monk fruit sugar for a nourishing beverage. The possibilities are virtually limitless.