Korean Aloe Juice
The first time I tried aloe juice, I had just arrived in Seoul, Korea. I couldn't wait, so I bought it on the way out of the airport in a convenience store. I have an idea of what I thought aloe should taste and smell like - it has a characteristic smell. Most people in the US might be familiar with aloe because it has a cooling sensation if you rub the plant (or products made from it) on sunburn. Not exactly something I'd think about drinking. Read More >
Korean Lotte Chunky grape drink
This grape drink from Korea is weird and good at the same time. Out of all the Korean drinks I tried, this was one of my favorites. It is just like grape juice, but with little chunks of grape at the bottom. You have to drink it with a straw so the chunks of grape get sucked up, then you can chew on them. The texture is like if you peel a grape and soak it in juice for a little while, because that's pretty much exactly whats going on here.
Some people might think it's a little bit slimy, but I think it's delicious.
Black Currant Juice
This Black Currant Juice drink comes from Connecticut, where I picked it up in a local grocery store. It's a dark juice, and very strong smell, a lot like concord grape, and similar almost to wine. The taste is very much like a dark purple grape juice. There are slight tannins, but overall it's a very smooth drink.
It only has 3 ingredients: water, black currant juice (from concentrate), and fructose. But it's only 22% juice. How can that be? I'm not sure, maybe that means it's only 22% concentrate, with the water as the majority of the other 78%. If you know how they calculate the percentage of juice, please leave a comment. Regardless, this leads me to imagine that straight-up black currant juice is probably either bitter or sour - which is why cranberry juice is usually sold as a juice blend. The water and sugar really easily cut that though if it's the case, because it's actually very good.
Black currant is a small black fruit very high in antioxidants and vitamins, including Vitamin C. It has four times the Vitamin C of oranges, and twice as many antioxidants as blueberries. I think that qualifies it as a superfruit. It comes from Europe, and is working on making a comeback in the United States where it was banned in the past because of a threat to the logging industry. It is still banned in some states.
The black currant juice I tried was made by Currant Affair. You can visit their website at www.ConnecticutCurrant.com