WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HIBISCUS?

It’s impossible not to notice very attractive, colourful and showy flowers of hibiscus plant. In fact, hibiscus flowers serve not only for esthetic pleasure, but also for other purposes.The tea made from the flowers and leaves is known for its excellent refreshing properties. Some other popular names of this plant are karkade, roselle, Jamaica sorrel.

Hibiscus is a genus of flowers belonging to the Malvaceae, or mallow, family. It includes hundreds of species that grow mainly in tropical, subtropical and warm areas. The plants that belong to this genus are herbaceous and can be perennial as well as annual. They can be either small trees or woody bushes. The leaves are green and lanceolate. Its flowers usually are large, pompous, trumpet-shaped, with 5 and more petals and can be of various colours (white, red, yellow, pink, blue, purple). Actually, the flowers don’t have any scent. The flowers have cup-shaped centers that are called calyxes. After the end of blooming they turn into pods which hold the seeds. Calyxes are also used as ingredients for hibiscus tea as well as petals and leaves.                                      

Useful components

• Flavonoids
• Vitamin C
• Minerals

Interesting Hibiscus Facts

• Hibiscus is a national flower of Haiti, Malaysia and South Korea.
• In China hibiscus is known as a “shoe flower” because people use it to clean their shoes.
• China and Thailand are the largest producers of hibiscus.
• In Tahiti and Hawaii women put the hibiscus flower behind their right ear in order to indicate that they are single and ready to get married.

How to Use Hibiscus

Hibiscus can be consumed in different forms like cold and hot tea, jelly, jam, powder, infusions, liquid extracts, etc. 

Have you tasted hibiscus tea? Its pleasant sour taste reminds cranberry juice and  is good for satisfying your thirst and recuperating. We’d like to offer you a nice recipe of iced ginger hibiscus tea that has a wonderful taste.

Iced Ginger Hibiscus Tea Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/3 of fresh grated ginger
• 8 cups of water (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup of dried red hibiscus petals
• Ice cubes

First of all, you should prepare some ginger syrup. For that take 1/2 cup of water and add sugar. Then bring this mixture to a boil and simmer for about 3 minutes (try to stir it all the time to make sugar dissolve completely). After that remove the mixture from the heat and add fresh grated ginger. Cool this syrup and strain it. Then mix dried hibiscus petals with 4 cups of water, slowly bring to a boil and simmer for around 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, strain the mixture and add the remaining 4 cups of water. Add some ice cubes. Serve the tea with ginger syrup. Enjoy this wonderful drink!