Extract Leaves With Water

• 1
  Dried Stevia leaves crumble easily.Dry yerba mate leaves with straw image by eAlisa from Fotolia.com
  
  Buy dried Stevia leaves. These are available at health food stores, or you can grow Stevia in your garden and dry the leaves on your countertop for a few days. Crumble the leaves to extract more steviosides.
  
  
• 2
  Extract with hot water just like you would make tea.tea image by Photosani from Fotolia.com
  
  Place the crumbled leaves in a coffee filter, empty tea bag, or directly into a mug or cup.
  
  
• 3
  Dispense with a dropper.eyedropper tube image by jimcox40 from Fotolia.com
  
  Pour hot water (not quite boiling) over the leaves. Stir occasionally for about five minutes.
  
  
• 4). Strain out the leaves and then pour the liquid into a bottle with a dropper. If you have too much liquid, you can reduce it on the stovetop by leaving it uncovered on low heat--check it every 15 minutes or so until it is reduced enough to fit in the bottle.
  
  

Extract Leaves With Alcohol

• 1). Buy dried Stevia leaves. These are available at health food stores, or you can grow Stevia in your garden and dry the leaves on your countertop for a few days. Crumble the leaves to extract more steviosides.
  
  
• 2). Extract Stevia with alcohol. Alcohol extractions pull more steviosides out of the leaves and make a stronger sweetening liquid than using water. Place the leaves in pure ethanol (NOT denatured alcohol) in a closed jar. Do not heat the alcohol while extracting. Let the leaves sit in the alcohol overnight.
  
  
• 3). Strain out the leaves. The steviosides will be in the alcohol. Pour the alcohol into a bottle with a dropper or reduce the volume of the alcohol in a pan on a stove set to low. The alcohol will evaporate, leaving the steviosides in the pan. Take the pan off the stove and let the last of the alcohol evaporate at room temperature. Fill your dropper bottle with water and then dump the water into the cooled pan. Swirl to dissolve the steviosides and then pour the water back into the dropper bottle.
  
  

Dilute the Powdered Extract

• 1). Purchase the powdered extract of steviosides at a health food store.
  
  
• 2). Dilute the powder with three volumes of water; for instance, add 1 tsp. of extract to 3 tsp. of water.
  
  
• 3). Pour the liquid in a bottle that has a dropper.