Alo Drinks Review – A Superfood Powerhouse Packed Full of Essential Vitamins Minerals and Aminos’

‘Summer’ here in the United Kingdom typically consists of the sun making an appearance for a duration of approx two weeks, spreading over  a period of two-three months *I kid you not*. This year though, we have be ultra blessed to have had glorious sunshine since late June up until last week *cries*. With muggy temperatures reaching a high of 30 degrees during this rare sunny spell, it has been more important than ever to keep hydrated!

Whilst scouring the internet in an attempt to find a new, natural and refreshing beverage to keep me hydrated, I stumbled across Aloe Vera brand ‘Alo Drinks’.  Now we are all familiar or at least know someone who has used aloe vera to help heal cuts or to assist with soothing nasty sunburns… but what you probably didn’t know is that Aloe Vera is super-food ‘powerhouse’.

What is Aloe Vera I here you ask?

Sourced from Alo Drinks UK website, “Aloe Vera is a stemless or very short-stemmed succulent plant growing between 60-100 cm tall and spreading by offsets. The leaves are thick and fleshy, green to grey-green, with some varieties showing white flecks on the upper and lower stem surfaces.

The margin of the leaf is serrated and has small white teeth. The flowers are produced during the summer on a spike up to 90 cm tall, each flower pendulous, with a yellow tubular corolla 2-3 cm long. (wiki)

Aloe Vera is very versatile and has many beneficial applications to the body both externally on the skin and internally on one’s internal organs. This article focuses on the benefits you can derive by drinking the aloe vera (or gel).

Specifically, when aloe vera is mentioned here, it refers to the Aloe Barbadensis Miller species. An aloe vera leaf basically consists of two major components: the skin and the gel.

The skin of the aloe vera protects the plant from the destructive effects of direct sunlight. But it is the gel, the transparent substance, of the aloe vera that has the most nutrients. As a matter of fact, it contains more than 200 nutrients. Chemical analysis by the International Aloe Science Council revealed that the clear gel of the aloe contains the following vital nutrients: amino acids / minerals / vitamins / enzymes / proteins / polysaccharides / biological stimulators.

Aloe vera is the only plant on earth that contains the Acemannan, a mucopolysaccharide present in the inner gel of aloe vera. It stimulates receptivity of the digestive tract to vitamins, mineral nutrients, trace elements, enzymes and many other important nutrients to strengthen our immune system, repressing inflammations and benefiting the mucus membrane. It has a mild anti-carcinogenic action by producing hydronium ion (H+)”.

The Benefits of Aloe Vera Juice and Extract

1. Good for Digestive tract:

• Aloe vera juice is used for consumption and relief of digestive issues such as heartburn and irritable bowel syndrome.
• Aloe vera encourages the bowels to move and help with elimination.
• If you have diarrhoea, it will help slow it down.

2. Assists the immune system

• Looking ahead to the upcoming wild Winter, our immune systems need to be boosted.
• Aloe vera is especially great for those who have chronic immune disorders like polysaccharides or fibromyalgia since the polysaccharides in aloe vera stimulate macrophages, the white blood cells that fight viruses.

3. Pain reliever and reduces inflammation

• Aloe vera improves joint flexibility and comes filled with mucopolysaccharides — the amino sugars needed for the regeneration of body cells.
• It strengthens joint muscles, which therefore reduces pain and inflammation in weakened or aged joints.

Back to Alo Drinks

In one typical Alo Drinks 500ml serving, this upcoming brand currently taking the market by storm is packed full of essential vitamins, minerals and amino acids your body needs in order to operate efficiently and effectively. I say ‘taking the market by storm’ as the official UK Distributor of Alo Drink ‘Unione’ was a finalist under the category ‘Best New Drink Product’ at The Natural and Organic Awards  held in London, England back in April 2013.

The Alo Drinks team here in the UK were kind enough to send me some of their products to try (Thank You Guys!) and below is what I thought about the variety 3 pack sent to me.

The Variety 3 Pack contains 8 different flavours, each with their own unique taste and scent. Amongst the flavours sent were Vegi+Fruit, Original, Mango Mangosteen and Pink Grapefruit.

I am no stranger to having pulp in my fruit drinks *I must admit, there is something about the combination of drinking and gently chewing on the pulp at the same time that I adore*so therefore am not phased by the jelly type texture of the aloe extract, but for someone who prefers their drink to be  a ‘smooth’ like texture may not be for you.

All flavours were light and very refreshing to drink whilst some combinations were more flavoursome than others. My stand-out favourite flavour was the Alo Exposed Original Alo Vera with Honey closely followed by Olive Tea and Mango Mangosteen.

Using just three ingredients (real aloe extract, honey and cane sugar) to make this simple but ever delightful concoction, the Original Alo Vera with Honey certainly did the trick in hydrating me whilst tantalising my taste buds. In fact, it was that nice that I would happily stock my fridge full of this flavour!

If I had to pick my least favourite flavour, it was surprisingly the veg+fruit. I initially had high hopes for this combination as I imagined it to taste somewhat exotic with a hint of veg. Instead it pretty much tasted like tomato juice.

Overall, I would definitely recommend you try at least one of these Alo Drink  flavours yourself as they would not disappoint, not forgetting the health benefits Aloe Vera juice / extract has to offer.

In the UK they are currently available to purchase from Whole Foods Market, Planet Organic and Harvey Nichols to name a few.

Should you want to find out more about the products mentioned within this article, you can find Alo Drinks UK online by visiting the Alo Drinks UK website , Alo Drinks UK facebook or by following them on Twitter.

For those state side Alo Drinks can be found online by visiting the official Alo Drinks website , Alo Drinks Official facebook or by following them on Twitter.