Franken-Sugars & the Sweetness Trap: Why We Keep It Simple
Sweetness used to be a natural treat — a ripe peach in summer, a drizzle of honey, a splash of cane sugar in a sparkling tea. Then the food world went to the lab.
In the rush to make everything “sugar-free” or “zero guilt,” we created Franken-sugars: artificial and “natural-ish” sweeteners that deliver hyper-sweet taste without calories. Clever? Yes. Delicious? Debatable. Good for how we experience flavor? Not so much.
At Jinx, we take a simpler path: real cane sugar, used with intention, to support flavor — not blanket it.
Let’s talk about why.
Artificial Sweeteners: The First Franken-Wave
You know the classics:
Aspartame
Sucralose
Saccharin
Engineered to be hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, they promise sweetness without calories. They also come with:
Bitter or metallic aftertastes
Strange lingering sweetness
A “hollow” flavor experience
Even if they work for some people, they rarely taste like food. They taste like… lab coats.
The “Natural” Sweetener Boom — Still Not Nature
Then came the “natural” answer to the artificial problem:
Stevia
Monk fruit extract
Sugar alcohols (erythritol, xylitol, etc.)
Pulled from plants? Yes. Processed heavily? Also yes.
These sweeteners can carry:
Herbal or licorice notes
Bitter edges
A drying or cooling sensation
Intense, lingering sweetness
They're marketed as nature’s answer to sugar — but very little in nature tastes like this. It’s still engineered sweetness. Just wearing a leaf-logo hoodie.
The Problem Isn't Just Taste
When every drink hits you with turbo-sweet flavor, it nudges your palate toward expecting intensity — all the time.
It can make genuinely delicious things (real fruit, fresh tea, sparkling water, thoughtful cocktails) seem “flat” unless they shout.
Hyper-sweet inputs teach your taste buds to crave quantity over quality.
And that’s not how flavor works.
Our Philosophy: Real Flavor, Light Sweetness
Tea is naturally aromatic and layered. Fruit brings brightness and acidity. Gentle sweetness supports those notes — it shouldn’t bulldoze them.
So we keep it simple:
✅ Real brewed loose-leaf tea
✅ Real ingredients
✅ Real cane sugar — in moderation
❌ No stevia
❌ No monk fruit
❌ No “flavor system” magic dust
Cane sugar is familiar. Balanced. Clean. It dissolves quietly into the background so the tea and botanicals can shine.
Not too sweet. Not fake sweet. Just… right.