I got some monk fruit at the discount grocery store where they have random discontinued things and it was a huge bag of little mini pixie stick sized, single serve packets of monk fruit powder and I ate the whole bag like they were pixie sticks and I was a six year old on Halloween.
A lot of people complain about it, but I don't have any problem with it. I enjoy stevia-based sodas like Zevia or even hard seltzers with it (Truly has a few) with no problem. I wonder if it's one of those things where it tastes different to various people like cilantro.
It is. They've done research and found that basically all artificial sweeteners have a genetic component. For me personally, stevia tastes like soapy bitter lawn clippings, while aspartame and sucralose taste basically normal. A few of my old standby drink mixes swapped to stevia a couple years ago, and I instantly noticed and couldn't finish them.
If you don't mind me being pedantic, "et al." is short for "et alia" which means "and other people". "Etc", short for "et cetera", means "and other things". You only use "et al." when talking about people not named in a list.
Which I don't understand. It literally would be cheaper for them to use stevia or monk fruit and call it a day than to quibble over something so trivial.