It’s a genuine fact. I don’t understand how anyone could stand drinking it and yet, I ingest two tablespoons of it on daily basis.
It started out fairly innocently. I enjoy cold, icy drinks. Unfortunately, I have not been able to make ice cubes in my freezer for the past 16 years because my varied housemates over the years keep insisting on filling up the freezer. When I finally bought a Ninja Blender to make smoothies, I discovered I could buy bags of different frozen fruits (which was permitted in the freezer because it is considered “food”) then add bananas, milk or yoghurt to make some really awesome smoothies. After I moved to live in Toronto by myself, it became an almost daily routine to quickly make a fruit smoothie to end my day.
Sometime late last year, I started reading up on the whole health food fad and I wondered if I could add something extra to my drinks. Couple of things that came up were coconut oil and aloe juice. Despite growing up on an island famous for its coconut drinks, I never really like its tastes. And the thought of outright drinking oil just seems awkward. So the remaining choice was aloe juice. More research brought me to Lily of the Desert’s line of chemical-free, certified organic aloe vera juices and gels which looked like a really good buy. I ended up picking up a 32oz bottle of inner-fillet aloe vera juice. Which turned out to be the right choice.
As it turns out, aloe vera juice has a really strong grassy taste and smell. According to some reviewers, the whole leaf version is even stronger in taste. The first time I made my smoothie, I threw in about 1/4 cup of the juice. I think I almost cried while drinking it down - it wasn’t something I could throw away because of all the fruits that I had added into the drink.
It took a while but I eventually came down to a decent ratio of two tablespoons full per smoothie. Initially, the taste was overpowering but as time passed, I no longer taste much of it unless I actively try to seek it out while drinking.
Lately, I’ve been considering increasing my intake to perhaps three tablespoons… however, I can still remember that first night when I tried it for the first time. It is enough to scare me from switching things up for awhile.