Most commonly asked questios: Agave does not need to be refrigerated and has a shelf life of 1 year.

What is Agave?
Blue Agave comes from Mexico which means there are a few things you need to understand. Labeling laws in Mexico are different then they are here in the United States. Pertaining to Blue Agave for example one can say in Mexico 100% Pure Agave on their labels because the product uses Pure Agave in the blend. There are some companies here in the U.S. who are using that misinterpretation to sell their agave here in the U.S. The FDA and FTC have been made aware of this and are starting an investigation. Adulterating products in Mexico is nothing new. Check out the FDA report on adding corn syrup to honey in Mexico. There are only 3 producers of agave in sweetening form in the world but there are a dozen names selling it here in the states. Find out what you can to make certain you are getting what you expect.

So how can you tell what you are getting or what is in your agave? Science. Ask the Agave company for the Chemical Analysis for their Agave. Some companies won't share this information claiming it is proprietary information but it is required by The U.S. Nutritional Labeling and Education Act (NLEA). Click here to see our test results conducted by General Mills. The easiest way to find out if the agave in question has been altered is to check the Sugars on the test. If the product has anything more than Fructose and Glucose something has been added. Another key indicator is an extremely high fructose level. Does High Fructose Corn Syrup sound about right? Check out the FDA report on adding corn syrup to honey in Mexico.

Why are ingredients added to other Agaves? In the late 90's there was a shortage of Agave in the world. It takes 6 years to grow new plants ready for harvest and the manufacturers didn't have enough to go around. They created a way to "stretch" the agave further and to keep the production alive but it consisted of creating different blends of Agave. If your agave comes from one of the other two companies in Mexico, something has been added. Please don't ask us for a list of the companies in the U.S. If you are really interested, just ask them for their chemical analysis and compare ours. We've found that many people/companies are really interested in the lowest price.

How can others claim to be Organic? An organic certification in Mexico is not difficult to come by. It is possible to be legit and we believe some of the farmers have sections of their crops which have passed legal certifications. Keep in mind; some sections of crops have passed. In Mexico if you have a certification for a section of your crop that means you can say your Agave is Organic. That does not mean every bottle coming out of your factory is Organic.

There are 3 main producers of Blue Agave in Mexico when it comes to the bottled non Tequila version. IIDEA, Nekutli and our company are the main producers. You won’t see their names on bottles here in the U.S. because the bottles sold here have been repackaged by U.S. companies. Both companies have been generous enough to provide us with their chemical analysis for their products which we will include in a chart below. Below the chart we will give you a breakdown of each sugar, how it is used and where it comes from. As you will notice, some of these sugars are dangerous for people with Diabetes or Hypoglycemia. Yes, ours is Organic.

How can some Agave’s say they have a low Glycemic Index? There is only one company in the United States who is able to conduct human In Vivo clinical studies, which is the only legal product claim substantiation accepted by the United States government, including the FDA & FTC. If you look at the other Glycemic Testing that has been done, it is from groups the FDA won’t even recognize outside of our country like Australia and Mexico. Click below to see the definitions of Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load provided by the Glycemic Research Institute in Washington D.C.

It is an FDA violation and Federal offense to print incorrect information on a label, such as stating a product is "Low Glycemic" if it is not. It is an FTC violation to state a product is "Low Glycemic" on brochures, advertisements and product materials if it is not.

Additionally, the physical consequences of diabetics, hypoglycemics, and persons with insulin-related disorders consuming high glycemic products, believing them to be low glycemic, can be profound. Products that claim to be low glycemic, and in reality, are not low glycemic, open themselves to lawsuits for fraud, FDA violations, FTC violations, class action suits, and medical damages.

With clinical evidence of the glycemic properties of a product, manufacturers can provide customers, as well as government agencies, finite proof that their product has been proven to be low glycemic.

The Glycemic Research Institute strictly adheres to FDA and FTC guidelines. 

Glycemic Index Defined

Glycemic Load Defined

Chemical Analysis:

	Volcanic Nectar	Nekutli	IIDEA
Fructose	49.10%	67%	70%
Glucose	10.70%	28%	0%
Dextrose	0.00%	0%	21%
Maltose	0.00%	1.45%	0%
Mannitol	0.00%	0%	5%
Sucrose	0.00%	0%	5%
Maltodextrose	0.00%	1.22%	0%
Tetramaltose	0.00%	0.73%	0%
Glycemic Index	27	46	--
Glycemic Load	1.6	--	--
Inulin	11.81%	--	2%

Glucose / Dextrose / Maltodextrose

Glucose is produced commercially via the enzymatic hydrolysis of starch. Many crops can be used as the source of starch. Maize, rice, wheat, potato, cassava, arrowroot, and sago are all used in various parts of the world. In the United States, cornstarch (from maize) is used almost exclusively.

This enzymatic process has two stages. Over the course of 1-2 hours near 100 °C, these enzymes hydrolyze starch into smaller carbohydrates containing on average 5-10 glucose units each. Some variations on this process briefly heat the starch mixture to 130 °C or hotter one or more times. This heat treatment improves the solubility of starch in water, but deactivates the enzyme, and fresh enzyme must be added to the mixture after each heating.

In the second step, known as saccharification, the partially hydrolyzed starch is completely hydrolyzed to glucose using the glucoamylase enzyme from the fungus Aspergillus niger. Typical reaction conditions are pH 4.0–4.5, 60 °C, and a carbohydrate concentration of 30–35% by weight. Under these conditions, starch can be converted to glucose at 96% yield after 1–4 days. Still higher yields can be obtained using more dilute solutions, but this approach requires larger reactors and processing a greater volume of water, and is not generally economical. The resulting glucose solution is then purified by filtration and concentrated in a multiple-effect evaporator. Solid D-glucose is then produced by repeated crystallizations.

Mannitol is a nutritive sweetener (compare to non-nutritive sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharin which provide no nutrients or calories), stabilizer, humectant and bulking agent in foods and supplements. For commercial use, it is manufactured via a catalytic hydrogenation process. Excessive consumption may have a laxative effect, similar to certain high--fiber foods. Because of this, products containing mannitol must include a laxative warning on the label if the mannitol content in a serving exceeds 20g.

Maltose, also called malt sugar, is not found free in nature, but is formed by enzymes or acid hydrolysis from starch also found in Corn Syrup.

Chemically, mannitol is an alcohol and a sugar, or a polyol; it is similar to xylitol or sorbitol. However, mannitol has a tendency to lose a hydrogen ion in aqueous solutions, which causes the solution to become acidic. For this reason, it is not uncommon to add a substance to adjust its pH, such as sodium bicarbonate.

Sucrose (common name: table sugar, also called saccharose)

Sucrose is the most common food sweetener in the industrialized world, although it has been replaced in industrial food production by other sweeteners such as fructose syrups or combinations of functional ingredients and high intensity sweeteners.

Sucrose is ubiquitous in food preparations due to both its sweetness and its functional properties; it is important to the structure of many foods including biscuits and cookies, ice cream and sorbets, and also assists in the preservation of foods. As such it is common in many processed and so-called “junk foods.”

Sucrose is an easily assimilated macronutrient that provides a quick source of energy to the body, provoking a rapid rise in blood glucose upon ingestion. However, pure sucrose is not normally part of a human diet balanced for good nutrition, although it may be included sparingly to make certain foods more palatable.

Overconsumption of sucrose has been linked with some adverse health effects. The most common is dental caries or tooth decay, in which oral bacteria convert sugars (including sucrose) from food into acids that attack tooth enamel. Sucrose, as a pure carbohydrate, has a high food energy content (4 kilocalories per gram or 17 kilojoules per gram), and thus can make a diet hypercaloric even in small amounts, contributing to obesity.

The rapidity with which sucrose raises blood glucose can cause problems for people suffering from defects in glucose metabolism, such as persons with hypoglycemia or diabetes mellitus. Sucrose can contribute to development of the metabolic syndrome. An experiment with rats that were fed a diet one-third of which was sucrose may serve as a model for the development of the metabolic syndrome. The sucrose first elevated blood levels of triglycerides, which induced visceral fat and ultimately resulted in insulin resistance.
 
Does Agave need to be refrigerated? No. You can store it at room temperature.

What is Raw Agave? Some companies (Madhava Honey) claim they scoop out agave from the core of the Agave plant and place it into bottles for the Raw food market. That technique would work if you were extracting agave for use in Tequila because the agave is required to ferment. The blue agave purchased in bottles on shelves used for sweetening, baking or manufacturing is not extracted that way. Not only would the agave ferment it would be a daunting task filling each bottle by hand.

Volcanic Nectar has conducted internal testing to see when enzymes start to breakdown at certain temperatures and different time durations. We now have it down to an exact science. Before you ask what our formula is, let me just say it is RAW.

What's the difference between Dark, Light/Amber and Clear Agave? Rumor has it that there are more minerals in the Dark versions of the agave so it is a healthier choice. The only difference we have tested when filtering the blue agave is that the dark versions have higher beta Carotenes. The taste is the other problem. In order to get the darker colors the agave must be heated longer and hotter which results in almost a burned taste. Other color variations come from adding different ingredients to the product. The best tasting and best for you version is definitely the amber goldish color.

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