Patent attributes
The present invention provides a sweetener which has mild sweetness like sugar while maintaining a high sweetness intensity of a Stevia sweetener and also has a sharp head-taste of sweetness, a sharp after-taste of sweetness, as well as reduction of the bitterness and astringency of after-taste peculiar to the Stevia sweetener, and a process for producing the same. The sweetener contains steviol glucosides comprising β-1,4-galactosyl rebaudioside A having one to three β-1,4-bonded galactosyl groups in a molecule and rebaudioside A, wherein the following expressions (1) and (2) are satisfied:[(GRA+RA)/(X)]≧0.4 (1)[(GRA)/(RA)]≧1.0 (2)wherein GRA represents the weight percentage of the β-1,4-galactosyl rebaudioside A having one to three β-1,4-bonded galactosyl groups in a molecule, RA represents the weight percentage of the rebaudioside A, and X represents the weight percentage of the steviol glucosides.
