The present disclosure provides a first sweetening composition comprising a) a natural sweet-tasting carbohydrate, b) a stevia compound, c) rubusoside, a rubusoside derivative, neohesperidin, thaumatine, phloretin, trilobatin, monatin, hesperetin, an enzyme-treated steviol glycoside or any combination thereof, and d) tannin, wherein component d) is present in an amount in the range from 1 mg/l to 400 mg/l, or wherein, based on the total weight of components b), c) and d), component b) is present in an amount in the range from 45 to 75 wt-%, component c) in an amount in the range from 2 to 40 wt-%, and component d) in an amount in the range from 2 to 40 wt-%. Furthermore, the present disclosure provides a second sweetening composition comprising a) a natural sweet-tasting carbohydrate, b) a stevia compound, c) rubusoside or a rubusoside derivative, d) tannin and e) oak extract or pomegranate extract. And, the present disclosure provides a third sweetening composition comprising a) acesulfam or aspartame, b) sucralose, a stevia compound, saccharin or cyclamate, c) neohesperidin, thaumatine, rubusoside, a rubusoside derivative, phloretin, trilobatin, monatin and/or hesperetin, and d) tannin in an amount in the range from 1 mg/l to 400 mg/l or wherein, based on the total weight of components a), b), c) and d), the component a) is present in an amount in the range from 10 to 50 wt-%, component b) in an amount in the range from 15 to 65 wt-%, component c) in an amount in the range from 0.1 to 4 wt-%, and component d) in an amount in the range from 5 to 50 wt-%. The present disclosure also provides a fourth sweetening composition comprising a) 0.1 to 50 g/l of a natural sweet-tasting carbohydrate, b) 40 to 120 g/l of a natural sweet-tasting carbohydrate different from a), and c) 30 to 300 mg/l of rubusoside or a rubusoside derivative. Moreover, the present disclosure is about the use of said sweetening compositions for sweetening and preparing beverages as well as for preparing syrups as precursors and for the preparation of such beverages. The disclosure is also about a beverage comprising said sweetening compositions as well as about a process for preparing such beverage.