Aloe Vera Wang
Everywhere you look, you can pay too much for stuff.
Designer watches, cell phones, jeans. Name any product and a company offers a high-end model for discriminating customers. Drinks are no different. These days, wine is not the only beverage you can spend a wad of bills on. 50 dollar bourbons are commonplace, microbrewed specialty beers can run 10 bucks a six pack, and you can’t swing a dead cat without knocking over a new “premium” vodka.
Now I will wholeheartedly admit I am a sucker for small batch bourbon and willingly pay a top price for them. But what I have a hard time justifying is dolling out 10-15 bucks at a so-so bar for a [insert ingredient]-tini. And why shell out all this money when you can make fru fru drinks at home, for 1/3 the cost!
So after the break, I present to you 80 Proof’s world famous Aloe Vera Cocktail!
First, find an aloe leaf.
Easier said that done in some parts of town, but not Mt. Pleasant. The Hispanic markets carry these 2 foot long, impossible to carry home, monstrosities. Seriously, look at that picture on the top of the post, (I’ll wait) that bowl is a foot in diameter.
When most people think of aloe, they think skin. But turns out, it’s damn good for your insides as well! But since this not a health food blog, I won’t bore you. Let’s talk about booze instead.
The trickiest part of making an aloe drink is the aloe itself. When you break the plant open, you’ll notice that the center is a gooey, slimy and frankly kind of a disgusting mess. You can’t just pour it in your glass.
Step 1
Skin the aloe leaf with a knife.
Step 2
Put a large chunk of the gooey stuff in a blender. You need about 3-4 inches for each drink. Blend until liquefied.
Step 3
Now the fun part, pour the aloe juice into you cocktail shaker with ice, add two parts vodka and 1.5 parts simple syrup. Shake.
Step 4
Add some lime juice to serve. Serve over ice.
As weird as it sounds, this drink is really pretty tasty, and not in a fruity drink way. It’s refreshing, not sour. So drink and enjoy a few, your body will thank you later.
Photo Credit: Gansie
on October 19th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
this, in a way, tastes like a mojito. totally delish. hey, 80 — who made this up?
on October 20th, 2007 at 11:39 am
haha….you said wang
on October 20th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Sometimes I worry that I’m becoming little more than a shill for Trader Joe’s.
Then I realize that’s just because they sell stuff that I can’t easily find anywhere else.
To save yourself the hassle of finding, skinning and pureeing an aloe leaf, you could simply swing by your local TJ’s and pick up a jug of aloe vera juice. Conveniently, they regularly carry it for a reasonable price. Inconveniently, they only sell it in a gallon-sized jug.
I’ve never bought it because I didn’t have anything to use it for and it seemed a bit - bulky - to buy and then dislike. Now I may have to give it a shot.
Thanks, 80!
on October 20th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
joehoya–just in case you were wondering, buying aloe juice might be considered cheating.
on October 20th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Good to know.
I honestly wasn’t even thinking about cheating, but I can see why that would be a consideration.
on October 22nd, 2007 at 12:41 pm
interesting, where do you get some leafs?? don’t tell gansie i might have to cheat and buy the juice.
on May 1st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
[…] some fun excuses of a drink. There is Domku with its Lemon Grass & Ginger Aquavits and the Aloe Sojutini at Mandu, but we wanted one to make at home on a Friday night. We pre-game high end, not […]