Enhanced natural sweetener and method of making

1. A natural sweetening composition comprising naturally occurring high intensity sweetener components having improved natural flavor qualities, wherein said natural sweetening composition is made by a process consisting of:

(a) preparing a crude plant extract from natural high intensity sweetening compound selected from the group consisting of steviol glycosides, glycyrrhizin, mogrosides, and mixtures thereof by boiling dried, coarsely chopped leaves in water to form an aqueous liquor and plant mass, decanting the aqueous liquor away from the plant mass,

(b) providing at least one step of steam stripping the crude extract through a steam stripping column, wherein the steam stripping column has a head cap with a feed inlet and a vapor outlet disposed on a first end of the column and a bottom take-off with steam inlet and feed outlet disposed on an opposing second end of the column, and establishing a countercurrent flow by:

(i) allowing the crude extract to flow from the first end of the column against a rate of steam that flows from the opposing second end,

(ii) establishing the steam flow at a feed ratio of about 12:1 to about 19:1 relative to the extract feed rate,

(iii) transferring the volatile components to a vapor phase,

(iv) removing from the crude extract the volatile components;

(c) providing at least one step of membrane fractionation to filter said crude plant extract after removal of said volatile components using a semi-permeable membrane having a porosity ranging between 2,000 to 10,000 nm wco, and

(d) forming a permeate and a retentate, wherein the permeate is collected for about 2 hours by using a flow rate of 80 ml/min or the permeate is collected for about 3 hours by using a flow rate of 5.5 ml/min to 17 ml/min, wherein the permeate at the end of fractionation is characterized by having a higher total percentage of a mixture of rebaudioside A and stevioside in the permeate compared to total percentage of a mixture of rebaudiosides F, D, C and dulcoside A in the permeate.

2. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the crude extract of stevia comprises a sweet-tasting terpenoid glycoside.

3. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the crude extract of stevia comprises a natural high intensity sweetening compound that is an extract selected from the group consisting of Stevia rebaudiana, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Siraitia grosvenorii and mixtures thereof.

4. The composition of claim 3 , wherein the natural high intensity sweetening compound is modified by enzymatic or microbial fermentation.

5. The composition of claim 1 , further comprising flavor modifiers.

6. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the sweetening composition is subjected to a drying process.

7. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the sweetening composition is combined with a carrier material.

8. The composition of claim 7 , wherein the sweetening composition is co-crystallized with the carrier material.

9. The composition of claim 7 , wherein the sweetening composition has less than 0.25 kcal per gram of SES.

10. The composition of claim 7 , wherein the sweetening composition has a density of from about 0.1 g/cm 3 to about 0.8 g/cm 3 .

11. The composition of claim 7 , wherein the sweetening composition has a ratio of carrier material to plant based natural high intensity sweetening compound of from about 1:1 to about 99:1.

12. The composition of claim 7 , wherein the sweetening composition has a ratio of carrier material to plant based natural high intensity sweetening compound of from about 30:1 to about 40:1.

13. The composition of claim 7 , wherein the composition is a powder or concentrate.

14. The composition of claim 7 , further comprising a plant based natural low intensity sweetening compound.

15. The composition of claim 14 , wherein the crude extract of stevia includes the plant based natural low intensity sweetening compound.

16. The composition of claim 14 , wherein the plant based natural low intensity sweetening compound is a fruit-derived sweetener.

17. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the process of making the composition does not include treatments with ion exchange resins, treatments with carbon based or resin based decoloring agents, or crystallization with carbon based solvents to remove volatile components.