Hibiscus Tea: The Most Wonderful Drink!!

Hibiscus flowers are so beautiful, and they come in various colors. The most common and popular ones are the Red Hibiscus which are available in plenty everywhere. They don't need much care, also.

The benefits of making Hibiscus Tea at home are many.

Just drinking two cups of hibiscus tea, keeps blood sugar under control, controls the cholesterol levels, lowers BP,  is very high in Vitamin C, so it is good for the skin, hair and the eyes. This tea is good to keep away cough and cold. It also helps in preventing Urinary Tract Infection, if taken along with Cranberry Juice.

Best thing is,  it is very easy to make. here is the recipe:

5/6 hibiscus flowers, plucked from your own garden( doesn't matter, what color they are)

5/6 cups of water

a few tsps of sugar, or honey/ any natural sweetner) I usually don't add sugar at all.

A pinch of salt

1 lemon




Method:

Clean/ wash the flowers gently.

Take only the petals throw everything else.

                                                Throw away this thing, only the petals
                                                             should be there

Boil the water, once it starts to boil, take it off from the stove

You can add sugar/ whatever sweetner you want and also salt.

Put all the petals and cover the it with a lid.

Let it soak for about 20 minutes

Then strain it, it would a deep wine color

Now you can add the juice of 1 lemon, and voila you would immediately see the color of the juice turn to a pretty red color ( I used only Red Hibiscus), I don't know how the color would be if we used other color hibiscus, for I never had the chance of using other colors.

(our dog simply loves eating these flowers especially, the voilet, yellow, orange and the pink ones that I have. So, I never get to see them bloom at all)
                            Caught her in the act. (she was barely 3 months old). She is now a big girl and                                 still loves to steal Hibiscus                                                                                         

This juice doesn't have any taste of its own, so you can even mix it with any other juice you might like, and have it cold also.

Here I have mixed with a herbal Rose drink called Roofza. If you have cranberry juice you can mix it with that too for additional benefits

You can have it immediately as a hot tea or cool it in the fridge and have it later. You can even make a whole lot,  if you have many hibiscus growing in your garden then prepare them in the same way and store it in the fridge and keep using it whenever you feel like.

The pulp of the flower too should not be wasted, it can made into a fine paste in mixer/ grinder and used as a hair mask.

This hair mask can be kept for about 1/2 an hour with the hair covered with a shower cap.

Afterwards,  it can be thourghly rinsed and. No need to apply any conditioner after this treatment. You would find your hair very clean, shiny and bouncy, and you would simply love your hair.

So make the Hibiscus Tea/ Juice and make the Mask and enjoy the benefits .

BTW, the Hibiscus leaves too can be made into a paste and used as a shampoo, it would lather up nicely like a shampoo, but must be rinsed very well.