As you know splenda is made from sugar so it tastes like sugar...but its not so calorie/carb free as it would like you to think! Why? Because sucralose, the artificial sweetener in Splenda, is so
incredibly concentrated (600 times the sweetness of sugar) that it
needs a “carrier” to dilute it in order to be useful. Unfortunately,
the carrier in powdered Splenda is made up of dextrose and
maltodextrin, fancy words for “sugar” and “sugar,” so a packet of
Splenda has about one gram of carbohydrate, and a cup of Splenda
granular has 24 grams of carb. Additionally, some of the powdered
sweeteners, particularly the bulk types, have an "off-flavor" which
many people find objectionable.
Sucralose however is not patented that means basically you can buy alterior products that use sucralose but dilute it in water! The only problems are the full-strength liquid, as it comes to the manufacturers, is very
concentrated. This has two potential problems. The first is that one
drop of liquid can be over a teaspoon of "sugar-sweetness" -- not good
if you want less in your coffee or tea. The other is that the
concentrated liquid tends to create crystals in dispensers over time,
clogging them up. Different suppliers have dealt with this in different
ways.
Sweetzfree is my favorite liquid sweetener in recipes where I need a
larger amount. They recently changed the dispenser on the largest sizes
so that they no longer clog, although twice in the course of using the
largest size I had to remove a "shell" of crystalized sucralose from
the applicator. However, this "shell" is handy for sweetening a pitcher
of iced tea.
Sweetzfree comes in several sizes. The largest is 4 oz., which
gives the sweetness of 96 cups of sugar for $64 (including shipping).
This works out to about 67 cents per cup of sugar equivalent. It used
to be available only on certain days, but as of 12/31/07 can be ordered
at any time.
http://www.sweetzfree.com/
PS: I don't profit from this at all.