Sister’s illness leads to a sweet idea

When Micaela Weiss first started experimenting with blending an all-natural sweetener, it was strictly for her and her family’s use.

Now, the Sweet Briar College senior from Virginia Beach is on the verge of publicly launching Free and Sweet. It’s her version of a zero-calorie sweetener made from the leaves of stevia, a sweet herb native to South and Central America.

Despite its fine, white, sugary-sweet consistency, Free and Sweet originated from the bitterest of experiences.

In 2003, Micaela’s younger sister Natasha Weiss suddenly fell ill with a debilitating headache, purplish body rash and a high fever. Without a diagnosis, the then-15-year-old hovered on the brink of death for months on end.

“It was horrifying,” she said. “Your worst nightmare. Every night I was thinking, ‘Oh my God. Is this it? Is this all I get?’”

About six months in, Natasha started to slowly recover. Her family now suspects the illness may have been dengue fever, a disease carried by mosquitoes in the tropics that could have been swept to Virginia in a hurricane. Natasha still suffers some after effects, like arthritis and food allergies that give her headaches and cause her joints to throb.

One of the worst offenders — artificial sweeteners.

“They make me so sick,” Natasha said in a recent interview. “I had to change everything (in my diet) to organic; everything to natural.”

And while her friends would go out and order milkshakes, drink soda or eat ice cream, she abstained.

She remembers one night ranting to her sister about how unfair it was.

So Micaela, who’s two years older than Natasha began researching all-natural sweeteners, and learned about the stevia plant.

Although it has been used as a sweetener for decades in other parts of the world, at that time it only had gained Food and Drug Administration approval for use as a dietary supplement.

She imported a batch of the plant from China.

Natasha tried the product, “loved it,” and continued using it as a sweetener without any ill effects.

In its pure form, stevia is 300 times sweeter than sugar, with an aftertaste similar to licorice.

With help from her family, Micaela used a powder form of the herb, and experimented with mixing in different fibers to get the right sweetness, and reduce the aftertaste.

And Natasha, who now also is a student at Sweet Briar, started carrying around miniature jars with the substance to sweeten her green tea and organic coffee. At home, she dipped fresh fruits in the sweetener and used it as an ingredient in milkshakes and homemade ice cream.

Soon, Micaela’s friends and family were asking for jars of their own.

“When I started bringing it in to use as a family, I had no idea that it would go any bigger than that,” said Micaela, who is majoring in business management. “I thought it would be fun to try to package it and come up with a logo.”

She decided on Sweet Briar’s colors, pink and green, and a logo featuring a daisy, in honor of the Daisy Williams, daughter of the college’s founder.

She formed a limited liability company, got insurance, hired a packaging company and started a Web site. She’s also in the process of registering Free and Sweet as a trademark, patenting the formula and seeking organic and kosher certification.

In December, one of the final puzzle pieces fell into place when the FDA approved the use of stevia as a sweetener

In her senior seminar with Tom Scott, chair of Sweet Briar’s business department, Micaela formed a business plan. She hopes to start marketing her product to coffee shops and health food stores around Lynchburg, and to the college.

“Her vision was pretty astonishing,” Scott said. “I would think this would be the year where it’s going to be implemented.”

“I’m hoping by April 1, we’ll have a couple of local places that are already carrying it,” she said.

She’s charging $5.99 for a box of 50, 1-gram packets of the sweetener, and already has received about 40 orders, she said.

So far, Micaela estimates she has spent about $25,000 in business start-up costs.

But she has competition. According to the Wall Street Journal, Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. are among other companies working with stevia. Their versions are called Truvia and PureVia,

respectively.

“We’re the little guy,” Micaela said. “For right now, we want to stay small.”