Expo East 2022 Standout Brand: Lakanto

Lakanto: A Millennia-Old Natural Sugar Substitute (Without That Weird Aftertaste)

Over a thousand years ago, a group of Buddhist monks in remote Asian highlands discovered a unique fruit that increased their “chi” and well-being, nicknaming it “The Immortal Fruit.” 

Today, Lakanto harvests this sacred fruit that we know now as monk fruit—named after the people who discovered it—from the same region, using pesticide-free and traditional farming methods that support the local economy without interference. 

Although monk fruit is 300 times sweeter than regular sugar, it won’t spike your blood sugar at all—and doesn’t have that weird aftertaste that comes with many sugar substitutes. 

If you’re as curious as us about how this sugar sorcery works, here you go—the whole monk fruit is crushed and slowly steeped in hot water, then the juice is filtered to remove fructose and sucrose sugars, leaving a compound called mogroside that bypasses digestion by not being absorbed in the upper gastrointestinal tract. 

Zero calories, zero carbs, tastes just like sugar, [and was] designed over 30 years ago in Japan to be a complete replacement for sugar.

Joel Patrick, CRO at Lakanto

Then, the mogroside solution is condensed and dehydrated, leaving you with monk fruit extract, a sweet and tasty replacement for anyone looking to reduce their sugar intake. 

As Joel Patrick, the Chief Revenue Officer, relayed, Lakanto monk fruit sweetener is “zero calories, zero carbs, tastes just like sugar, [and was] designed over 30 years ago in Japan to be a complete replacement for sugar.”

Lakanto is an increasingly popular sweetener for the low-carb crowd, but they have more than just sugar replacements—they also provide products like keto baking and brownie mixes, syrups, granola, chocolate chips, and chocolate sunflower spread called Suntella (we see what you did there!)

Joel also told us one of their newest products is a brown monk fruit sugar replacement, which smells, tastes, and compacts just like a typical brown sugar would—without any of those nasty glucose spikes.