I'm using Stevia as a sugar substitute (I, along with every woman in my family, am pre-diabetic, so I figured it was worth a shot).

I seem to be having trouble getting the sweet out of the Stevia.

I've tried seeping it in boiling water, and I've wound up with a really dilute, barely sweet drink that is mostly after taste--but the leaves are still really sweet when you eat them. I've tried fresh leaves and dried leaves.

I've tried seeping them in vodka, and while the sweet goes out of the leaves and into the alcohol, the alcohol taste pretty much overwhelms the sweet. I've tried evaporating the alcohol, and my kitchen smelled like alcohol, and it didn't seem to do much for the underlying alcohol taste.

I've tried cutting up the fresh leaves and putting them in food, and what I wind up with are bites of really sweet with bites of not-so-sweet.

Would grinding the dry leaves into powder work? Any suggestions?