Aloe Vera Pulp Juice

A lot of Asian drinks seem to stem from a conversation that goes something like “I bet you couldn’t sell…” Speaking of which, have you heard of the new eel drink? . Before today my knowledge of aloe vera extended no further than a decorative plant and something you rub on sunburns. I would never imagine that it would be consumed by people, much less mass produced. So I was a little surprised when I stumbled upon the Aloe Vera drink section at the local Asian market. There was aloe vera in cans, in bottles, with pulp and without pulp, a bit like buying orange juice. I figured, if I’m actually going to drink aloe vera juice, I should get some with pulp.

Doesn’t the picture of the juice look appetizing? Before I took a sip I decided to read what exactly I was going to be drinking.

Yep, first ingredient on the list is aloe vera pulp. This isn’t an aloe vera flavored beverage, this is aloe vera with some sugar and honey added. Something I’ve noticed about Asian beverages is that a lot of them don’t use corn syrup; instead they use sugar and honey which is very refreshing. Here’s a picture of it poured into a cup.

All that white stuff floating around is the aloe vera pulp. There was a lot of it. I was actually pretty surprised when I took my first sip. It didn’t taste bad at all. It mostly tasted like honey and suger with a little hint of, what I guess is, aloe vera. The little chuncks of pulp werent bad either. They held a little flavor but mostly tasted like watery sugar. There was a lot of pulp though and by the end I was pretty much just eating aloe vera pulp. All in all it wasn’t bad at all, but next time I’m definitaly not buying the pulp version.

Final Verdict:

Taste: 7/10

Drinkability: 5/10

Cure for sunburn: 0/10

(unless you pour it over yourself)