Explore the health benefits of aloe vera.
3 Easy Mango Aloe Drink Recipes
Combine your favorite sweet mango flavor with aloe vera’s health benefits using these three mango aloe drink recipes.
Summer is coming to an end, but it’s not over yet!
So, before we dive into fall, I’m rolling out three yummy mango and aloe vera drink recipes. These mango aloe drinks are simple to make, as long as you have ripe mangos, fresh aloe vera, and a blender.
Why bother with fresh aloe vera?
Well, although you could substitute aloe juice for the fresh aloe vera in the recipes below, fresh is best. Aloe vera is great for intestinal health, being packed with antioxidant vitamins, polyphenols, and several anti-inflammatory compounds.
Unfortunately, commercial aloe drinks are usually diluted and filled with sweeteners. For the best health benefits, use fresh aloe vera gel instead of buying aloe juice.
If that’s not an option and you choose to buy aloe juice instead, then I suggest cutting down on the sweeteners in these recipes.
How to Prepare Fresh Aloe Vera
For each of these recipes, prepping the aloe vera is the first step. You can buy aloe vera leaves at many grocery stores, as well as online.
Prepping aloe vera for juices and smoothies is actually very easy. Just cut your leaf into a few large chunks and let it soak in a bowl of water for a few minutes. This will help rinse out the aloin, the yellow latex underneath the peel. It’s a strong laxative, so you really don’t want it in your mango aloe drinks!
Once your aloe vera is aloin-free, transfer the rinsed chunks to a cutting board. Use a sharp knife to slice off the spiny edges, then cut the chunks length-wise to split the leaf open.
Now you can use a knife or spoon to scrape out the aloe vera gel.
For the first two recipes, you will end up blending the gel into a pulpy liquid. For the last recipe, you will dice the gel into small chunks to make an aloe vera jelly topping for boba tea.
Now that your aloe vera is prepped, let’s go make some mango aloe drinks!
Aloe Vera Mango Lemonade
Lemonade is the ultimate summer refresher. It’s perfect by itself, but why not make it even better?
This aloe vera lemonade is sweet and summery, with a little bit of needed tang.
Ingredients:
1 cup cold water
¼ cup white sugar
1 cup mango (fresh or frozen)
½ cup fresh aloe vera
¼ cup lemon juice
1 tsp. lime juice
Instructions:
Heat the water, either in a small pot or in the microwave, and stir in the sugar until it is completely dissolved. Set it aside and let it cool.
Toss the fresh aloe vera gel and mango in the blender. Then blend the mango and aloe into a frothy liquid. If you’re one of those people who hates the texture of pulp, you can strain the mixture. Otherwise, leave it as it is.
Add the rest of the ingredients, blend for a few seconds until well-mixed, then pour your mango lemonade over ice.
Coconut Mango Aloe Refresher
Together, coconut and mango scream tropical! Add aloe vera, and you’ve got a wildly refreshing mango aloe drink.
Ingredients:
1 ripe mango
1 cup coconut milk
1 Tbs honey
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup fresh aloe vera
Instructions:
Toss everything into your blender and blend until smooth. Feel free to thin the drink with cold water for a refresher. For a coconut mango smoothie, only use ½ cup coconut milk, and add Greek yogurt to thicken the mixture.
Mango Milk Bubble Tea With Aloe Jelly
Let’s not leave out bubble tea!
Tea and mango is probably not a combination that immediately comes to mind. But I think you’ll like this creamy bubble tea.
This mango aloe drink is even easier to make than traditional bubble tea, because we aren’t using boba!
Ingredients:
1 cup tea
1 cup mango nectar
honey to taste
¼ cup milk or cream
¼ cup aloe vera jelly
Instructions:
Prepare the tea first, using your choice of green or black tea. Steep the tea to the strength of your liking, sweeten to taste with honey, and stick it in the fridge to chill it. Bubble tea is served iced, so wait until your tea is chilled to finish preparing the drink.
Once your tea is nice and cold, pour the tea and the mango nectar over ice, then stir in your choice of milk or cream. Instead of using traditional boba, you will top off the drink with aloe vera jelly.
Aloe vera diced into chunks of aloe jelly.
Why Aloe Water Isn’t Healthy
Aloe vera juice is full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other nutrients. But is drinking aloe water actually good for you?
Does aloe water live up to the hype? Yeah, I’ve been wondering the same thing too.
Aloe vera is a goldmine of a plant. The gel is rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fatty acids, flavonoids (like in tea), and many other nutrients. According to an article in the international journal Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, “The bioactive components of aloe have anti-inflammatory effect and aid the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, i.e., inflammations, gastric, duodenal and intestinal ulcers.”
Pretty amazing, right? Aloe vera can do wonders for digestive issues. And even if you have great digestive health, you can benefit from all of the nutrients packed in the aloe vera gel.
To benefit from aloe vera, you can use aloe vera jelly as a topping for your boba tea, blend aloe vera into your smoothies, add aloe vera to a regular cup of tea…or drink aloe water.
But does aloe water actually do any good?
After poking around and comparing aloe waters, here’s what I found.
What Is Aloe Water?
Aloe water is exactly what it sounds like: aloe mixed with water.
Fresh aloe vera pulp is about 96-99% water. That doesn’t leave much room for solids! However, even though aloe it is mostly water, the inside of the leaf is a gel and not a liquid.
To extract aloe water from the gel, the gel is usually crushed in a high speed grinder or pulper. While some aloe drinks contain pulp, most of them don’t, and the aloe vera is strained to filter out any particles. Once filtered, the liquid is sterilized and other ingredients like preservatives and stabilizers are added. (Click here if you want to learn more about how aloe vera is processed.)
Once the aloe vera juice is processed, the concentrated liquid still retains many of the nutrients that make aloe vera so valuable. But the concentrate is further diluted with water and sweeteners to make aloe water.
Is Drinking Aloe Water Beneficial?
The truth is that every aloe water is different.
Some contain aloe pulp, while some are pure liquid. Some aloe waters may have a high concentration of aloe extract. On the other hand, some aloe waters hardly contain any aloe at all, but have a ton of artificial sweeteners and flavors.
My advice? Always check the labels.
Water is almost always the first ingredient for an aloe water, but make sure that aloe vera juice or aloe vera gel is the second ingredient. If the aloe is way down at the bottom of the ingredients list, then it won’t do you any good.
The other thing you should check for is sweeteners. It’s no surprise that brands add sweeteners to aloe water. After all, aloe vera doesn’t taste that great by itself. It is low-carb, which makes it a pretty healthy drink option, but not a tasty one!
Although you should expect some sugar added, be careful how much a drink contains. For example, OKF aloe water contains fructose and sucralose (sugars) and grape flavoring. One bottle contains 22 grams of sugar (11 per serving.)
On the other hand, Alo aloe water contains 15 grams of sugar per serving, for a whopping 30 grams per bottle. That’s still less sugar than a soda, but it certainly isn’t that great if you are trying to drink healthy!
Still, Alo brand uses natural sweeteners like cane sugar and honey, while OKF uses artificial sweeteners. So which one is healthier? You could make an argument for either one.
Is Aloe Water Better Than Aloe Juice?
At this point you might be wondering, what is the difference between aloe water and aloe juice?
Great question!
Whereas aloe water is aloe + water, aloe juice is made by adding some aloe to a fruit juice. While the added nutrients from the fruit may make aloe juice healthier, juice typically contains A LOT of sugar.
I took a look at popular aloe juices from the brand Iberia, and was shocked by the amount of sugar in each drink. The strawberry flavor has 44 grams of sugar per bottle. The mango flavor has 52 grams. And the original flavor (which is flavored with white grape juice) contains a crazy 56 grams of sugar!
That’s more sugar than a can of Mountain Dew.
Considering all the sugar in aloe vera juices, I would choose aloe water over aloe juice.
How to Make Your Own Aloe Water
If you’ve read this far into the article, you have probably come to the same conclusion that I came to: diluted aloe water with a bunch of sweeteners is not all that healthy.
But…concentrated aloe juice that is freshly extracted from the gel is healthy.
So the best way to make sure you are drinking aloe water that is beneficial for you is to make your own!
Fortunately, making your own aloe water is very easy. All you need is an aloe leaf and a blender.
Once you rinse the cut leaf to remove the aloin (the yellow liquid between the gel and the rind), just toss the chunks of aloe vera gel into the blender. Once it is blended, you can strain out the pulp or leave it in…your choice. Add a little bit of honey for a natural sweetener, and maybe top it off with some fresh fruit slices. Then enjoy your refreshing and nutrient-rich aloe water drink!
How to Use Aloe Vera Jelly in Boba Tea
Should you swap out your tapioca pearls for aloe vera jelly? Learn about the benefits of using aloe vera jelly in boba tea.
Calling all exotic tea fans! Did you know you can add aloe vera jelly to boba tea? It’s a way to boost your tea with healthy vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and other nutrients.
Before we go any further, I have a confession: I’m not a huge fan of boba.
I love tea. But chewy blobs in my tea? That’s just weird.
So if you’re like me and you don’t care for tapioca pearls, adding aloe chunks is a good alternative topping for your bubble tea. (As strange as it sounds.)
Read on to see if aloe bubble tea is right up your alley!
What is Boba Tea?
First, if you’re new to the whole concept of boba tea, you should definitely try it. Boba tea is a type of bubble tea, which originated from Taiwan. It is usually sweetened with milk and sugar and served iced.
Photo by Frank Zhang on Unsplash
Rather than being your typical tea, boba tea contains tapioca pearls, more commonly known as boba. These starchy pearls are chewy and jelly-like. Usually boba tea comes with a wide straw, so you can suck the pearls through the straw and chew on them while drinking your tea.
But, tapioca pearls aren’t the only garnish option when it comes to drinking boba tea. Some boba teas contain jelly-like pearls made from fruit juice, or other fruit-related toppings.
Health Benefits of Adding Aloe to Boba Tea
While tea alone is very healthy, and contains polyphenols that act as antioxidants, boba tea is another story. Between the added sugar, milk, and tapioca pearls, the drink is stuffed with calories.
As dietician Emily Iuzzulino explained in a recent article, “the tapioca balls in the beverage, sweet and chewy though they may be, have no nutritional value, and are basically just empty calories, carbs and sugar.” Sorry to rain on your parade!
Using fruit pearls in your boba tea is no better, as these are usually sweetened as well. But swapping out the boba pearls for aloe vera jelly is a great way to lower the calorie content in your boba tea.
Beyond that, aloe vera jelly has many healing properties. Consuming aloe vera can help improve digestion and reduce intestinal inflammation.
If you enjoy having texture to your tea, but you are looking for a healthier alternative to traditional boba, adding aloe vera jelly to your tea is the way to go.
How to Make Your Own Aloe Jelly
Although some bubble tea shops now offer aloe vera jelly as a boba tea topping, the best way to try aloe vera boba tea is to make your own.
Making your own aloe jelly is super simple. All you need are some aloe vera leaves, which you can buy online or in some grocery stores.
Wash off your aloe vera leaf, and leave it soaking in water for a while in order to rinse out the yellow latex, or aloin. The water will turn slightly yellow due to the aloin in the water. You may want to soak your leaf for a while, rinse it off, then soak it again until the water is clear and free of aloin.
Next, peel or cut off the spiny edges of the leaf and cut the leaf in half. Carefully peel away the skin with your knife. This process can get tedious, since you don’t want to accidentally eat any skin, but you don’t want to accidentally discard any aloe either.
With the hard part done, you will find that the interior of the aloe vera leaf is slimy and jelly-like. All you have to do is rinse it off and start dicing the jelly-like flesh into little chunks for your bubble tea.
The jelly does not keep its shape for very long, so it is best to cut the aloe fresh for your boba tea. Click here for a more detailed recipe on making your own aloe vera jelly.
Is Aloe Boba Tea Actually Good?
Ok, I’ll admit that adding aloe jelly to your tea sounds healthy and refreshing, but is it actually good? Boba tea-lovers seem to be split over this question. Some find aloe vera jelly to be a refreshing topping. But not all boba connoisseurs find aloe jelly tasty. According to one, “the aftertaste is bitter and the chunks just kind of feel like biting into a watermelon that’s been pickled.” Not exactly a five-start review!
Personally, I don’t think aloe vera tastes all that good. The good news is that, when chopped up into small pieces and mixed with tea, it doesn’t taste like much.
Still, aloe vera jelly definitely goes better with non-milky boba teas, or boba teas with fruity flavors. So I wouldn’t go putting aloe jelly in a milk-based boba tea.
You might not like aloe vera jelly, but there is no way to know until you try it! Give it a shot, and see what you think.
Aloe Vera Tea: Health Benefits & How to Make It
Aloe vera and tea are both rich in antioxidants and other healthy compounds. Learn how to make your own aloe vera tea and enjoy the health benefits.
Did you know that tea is the second most popular drink in the world, second only to water? (Which shouldn’t even count—like, how could you beat water?")
Aloe vera and tea aren’t two words we usually put together. A few hundred years ago, it would have been highly unlikely to blend a succulent from northern Africa with an evergreen shrub from southeast Asia. But over time (and with the aid of globalization) we have managed to combine tea with just about everything…leading to the creation of aloe vera tea.
While tea doesn’t actually have a lot of nutritional value, it is full of polyphenols that act as antioxidants, which promote health and help protect the body from cellular damage. Aloe vera, on the other hand, is one of the most well-known medicinal plants. It is rich in nutrients and has many healing properties, leading to its use in drinks like aloe water and aloe juices.
So, what happens when you mix the two and make aloe vera tea? Magic?
Maybe not, but it might be the healthiest tea you ever drink.
Just to clarify, when I use the word ‘tea’ in this article, I am referring to real tea (green, black, oolong, etc.), not herbal teas. However…feel free to mix aloe with herbal teas as well!
Benefits of Consuming Aloe Vera
Aloe vera is famous as a topical anti-inflammatory and moisturizer. But these properties are effective when aloe is taken internally as well. Because aloe vera is an anti-inflammatory, it can help decrease stomach ulcers, reduce the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, and help soothe other digestive issues.
Like tea, aloe vera contains antioxidant polyphenols. According to a study in the journal Agronomy, there are about thirteen different flavonoids (a type of polyphenol) in aloe vera gel.
That’s not all! Because aloe vera contains Vitamin C, along with several other vitamins, it may be effective as an immune booster. While aloe vera’s use as an immune booster hasn’t been proven yet, it has been proven that Vitamin C boosts immune health.
Dried Aloe: Does it Work?
Typically, tea is made from dried leaves. Which works just fine for tea and most herbs, because they contain non-volatile compounds. These compounds don’t evaporate with the water when the leaves are dried.
Because of this, dried tea leaves are actually stronger than fresh and have a higher concentration of flavonoids.
But aloe is not a shrub or herb. Instead, aloe is a succulent, and as such the gel is about 99% water. Several of the active compounds in aloe are volatile, meaning that the drying process can greatly decrease the effectiveness of these compounds.
So, if you find aloe vera tea that uses dried aloe, don’t waste your money. While the tea may be fine, the added aloe vera won’t do much. You would be better off drinking a fresh aloe smoothie.
Does this mean you should say goodbye to aloe vera tea? Not entirely. Smoothies don’t quite have the allure of a cup of tea, so I wouldn’t settle for smoothies just yet. Although store-bought aloe vera tea may be lacking, you can make your own aloe vera tea at home!
How to Make Aloe Vera Tea
Can you make your own aloe vera tea? Absolutely. But maybe not in the way you think…
As I said, aloe loses a lot of its potency if you try to dry it like traditional tea leaves.
Aloe vera tea is best when you use fresh aloe vera. So you get to use fresh aloe leaves and take a more creative approach when making aloe tea.
Use fresh aloe vera gel
The most straightforward way to make aloe vera tea at home is to add fresh aloe vera gel from the leaf directly to your tea. However, aloe vera pulp is very jelly-like. It does not easily dissolve and mix into tea. If you go for this approach, I suggest tossing the aloe vera chunks into the blender. If you don’t have a blender, press the aloe through a strainer or a grater to break down the gel. Then use a whisk to stir it into your tea. Just know that you will still have aloe pulp floating around in your tea.
Use aloe vera jelly
Because aloe gel is very jelly-like, another option is to cut the gel into small cubes for your tea. Aloe vera jelly is actually a common alternative to boba in bubble teas, and is drank through a wide boba straw. Although it’s normally a topping for iced tea, you can add aloe vera jelly to your hot tea as well.
Add aloe vera juice or aloe water to your tea
The easiest way to add aloe to your tea is to simply make a cup of tea like you usually would, and stir in aloe vera juice from the store. Most aloe vera juices and aloe waters contain a lot of sugar, so if you use this method, you won’t need to sweeten your tea. As a downside, most aloe juices contain a very low amount of aloe vera. Similar to using dried aloe, you will miss out on a lot of the health benefits.
If you enjoyed this article, click here to learn about adding aloe vera jelly to boba tea.