Serious Eats
Serious Eaters, Join Me in the Equal-Splenda Taste-Off
The manufacturer of Equal is taking the folks who make Splenda to court over the issue of whether Splenda's advertising can contain the phrase, "made from sugar."
I must admit I switched from Equal to Splenda a couple of years ago in part because I found it comforting that Splenda was "made from sugar." According to the story, whether that statement is technically true is open to scientific interpretation.
Inspired by this tale of marketing and scientific intrigue, I hit my local supermarket to compare prices of Equal, Splenda, and Sweet 'N Low. Here's what I discovered:
50 Equal Packets: $2.79
50 Splenda packets: $2.89
50 Sweet 'N Low packets: $1.49
From a market position standpoint, these prices make sense. Splenda is now the market leader, so it can afford to be the high-priced brand. Sweet 'N Low, a truly terrible, aftertaste-dominated sugar substitute, can only survive by being the low-cost alternative.
I like Splenda a little bit more than Equal, but maybe that's because the "made from sugar" marketing claim infiltrated my brain. I'm going to do an A-B test with Equal and Splenda over the weekend on bowls of corn flakes, and I'll report back on Monday. Perhaps some other Serious Eaters can join me in this experiment.