Joke’s On Ju(ice)

I love juice. Give me any type of fruit juice and I’m happy. I’ve tried some interesting versions since I’ve been here. Green plum juice is my new favorite. But the crushed pear isn’t bad. Nor the red berry that looks like cranberry on the package, but isn’t, juice.

On my way home from teaching, I usually stop at my local corner store and grab a bottle (or two) of water, and a bottle of juice. The proprietor, easily 70 years old, always laughs at me and says, “Wa-ta party!” as I pay him. It’s our little joke. Except I don’t understand it.

The other night, I grabbed the familiar large green bottle of plum juice, a couple of waters, laughed, paid, and headed home. As I sat down to my computer I poured a glass of juice. Wait a minute, this smells funny. I looked at the bottle more closely. This isn’t plum juice, it’s, it’s, it’s, *aloe* juice. I was hesitant to taste it. I was raised to smear aloe on burns, not drink it. Well, I’ve got a full bottle of this, I might as well try it. It wasn’t bad. Sweet. And, pulpy. Little aloe leaves suspended throughout the glass. But not bad. By the end of the bottle I was quite fond of my mistake.

Today, on the way to school, I stopped at C-Space to grab a small bottle of aloe juice to take to class with me. I saw the familiar green bottle, paid the clerk, and continued to school. Once there, I settled down to grade papers, opened my bottle, and took a sip. I almost spit it out. What was this? I looked at the label more closely. No, it wasn’t aloe juice. It wasn’t plum juice. It was pine bud drink. If it had not had the word drink printed clearly on it in both English and Korean I would have questioned whether it was fit for consumption or not. It tastes what I would expect Pine Sol to taste like, had I ever tried it. Wait a minute…. I wonder if I could clean my floors with this….

I guess the moral of this story is that not all that is green is plum. Or, I need to read the (warning) label more carefully. Or something like that.