A team of Mexican bakers made a massive, sweet gesture toward madres and abuelitas across that country last Thursday. But the only thing sweet about the 2.2 metric ton celebration of Mother's Day is the fact that it was a cake. The gigantic dessert was made entirely with zero-calorie sweetener rather than sugar.

Peeps are soft, fluffy little mounds of sugary goodness that are absolutely the best around Easter, although Just Born is continuously expanding their line in an effort to include all major holidays. Usually, this expansion manifests itself in the form of new colors, like the bright green Peeps that are popping into stores for St. Patrick's Day, but sometimes they try to do something a little different, as they did when they release the cocoa-flavored bunny peeps a few weeks ago. Their latest release, however, omits what has traditionally been the most important part of the Peep: the sugar. Sugar-Free Peeps are the newest Just Born product. They are made with Splenda and come in packages of three yellow chicks.

Despite the plethora of Peeps in the candy aisles these days, I have yet to encounter the sugar-free version in person. Call me a traditionalist, but I have a hard time believing that the Splenda version could be anywhere near as good as the regular ones - especially when you consider that sugar, corn syrup and gelatin make up 98% of a regular Peep!

But that's what I eat every single day. And I'm only counting the tea I drink, not actual food.

I'm not a coffee drinker, I'm a tea drinker, so I'm probably healthy in that way, since tea has been proven to have many good health benefits. And I use fat free milk in my tea too. But the sugar. Oh, the sugar. I have 4 packets in each cup of tea that I make, and I have around 4 cups a day. That can't be good for me, can it? (And that's an average day - there have been some days when I've had 5 or 6 cups.)

I've tried sugar substitutes. I'm a fan of Splenda, though I can't get used to using it in tea (sorry). The other substitues don't do anything for me. I know, I know, I could either have flavored teas (nah, never liked them), or go without any sugar in the tea at all. No sugar? That's just crazy talk.

The Cinnamon Dolce Latte is back on Starbucks menu boards as of a few days ago, although a friendly store or two may have started making the popular drinks just before the New Year if you were lucky. Cinnamon Dolce is typically an indulgent drink, made with espresso, steamed milk and a sweet syrup flavored with cinnamon, butter and brown sugar. The standard comes topped with whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkles, as well. But due to the drink's popularity and the increasingly health-conscious customer base, Starbucks has introduced a sugar-free Cinnamon Dolce syrup this year as an alternative to the standard. It has the same flavors, but zero calories. Made with nonfat milk (and no whipped cream), a tall sugar-free Cinnamon Dolce Latte has only 90 calories, an impressive reduction from a tall-sized regular CDL made with whipped cream and whole milk, which has 340 calories (260 without the whipped cream).

Bada Beans are a new specialty product designed to make your coffee more flavorful. I use the phrase "specialty product" here because I haven't really seen anything like them before. The beans are small, sugar-free tablets that are flavored and are meant to be stirred into a cup of coffee for instant flavor, a portable alternative to the flavored syrups they offer at coffee shops. Immediately, I loved the idea because I often take my coffee on-the-go with me. I tried all three of their flavors: McCoy's Dream Vanilla Bean, Hazel's Nutty Hazelnut and Crazy Carl's Caramel Fudge.

The little tablets all smelled great in their little tins and dissolved easily in the hot liquid. Unfortunately, and this could be partially do to the fact that I like my coffee on the strong side, the flavor from the Bada Beans was not particularly strong. The chocolate had some caramel notes, but the hazelnut and vanilla had only a slight presence. Adding a second bean improved the flavor somewhat, but I also had to add milk at that point to take the edge of the sweetener. Not ready to give up what I still thought was a good idea, however, I tried adding the beans to tea and the difference was amazing. I could much more easily taste the flavors of the beans and they added a mild sweetness to the tea that was just right. The vanilla went particularly well with chai/spiced teas.

All in all, the Bada Beans weren't perfect, but I would definitely use them in teas and would consider carrying them along on trips, where you are more likely than usual to encounter coffee that could use a little boost of flavor, no matter how subtle a boost it is.

Somewhere around 25% of coffee drinkers in the US now prefer their coffee with a flavor, such as hazelnut or vanilla, and at least that many use calorie-free sweeteners in place of sugar on a regular basis. Splenda's new Flavor Blends for Coffee combine those concepts. They are packets of sweetener flavored to taste like French Vanilla, Hazelnut and Mocha, allowing consumers to "customize hot beverages at home or on the go with no calories."

The Flavor Blends only launched this week, so they might not be in stores in your area yet, but for fans of Splenda, they sound very promising. They will be ideal for using at the office, rather than going out to Starbucks for a high-calorie (and relatively high-cost) mocha. Their small size also allows them be tucked into a purse or coat pocket when traveling, but they will work well for regular home use, too.