Agua Flor de Jamaica/Agua Fresca flor de Jamaica/Hibiscus Tea simple infusion made with dried hibiscus flowers and water .Healthy drink and excellent thirst quencher.
If you been to Starbucks, Panera bread, or any Mexican restaurant you may encounter this delicious drink. Agua fresca in Spanish means water. Agua fresca can be made with sweet fruits as well as citrus, tamarind and also with seeds or flowers. If you want to read more take a look over here.
While writing my post on cooking with Gongura/ Roselle/ Florida Cranberry/Indian sorrel leaves and lentils, I researched a little bit of the gongura plant. Thus I came to know about the interesting factor that, leaves are consumed mainly in India and Burma.
Rest of the world is happy to consume its calyx, flower bud cover to make an infusion and use as tea. Flower bud cover/Calyx of gongura is dried and called flor de Jamaica. In the streets of Mexico you can see street vendors selling huge jars of Hibiscus tea.
Even though it is called Hibiscus tea, it is not made from our common Hibiscus plant, but it is made from calyx of Gongura/Roselle/Indian sorrel/Jamaican sorrel plant which is also a Hibiscus plant belongs to another species. It is called Hibiscus sabdariffa .
Health benefits of Hibiscus tea are known to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol, and to reduce blood sugar in type two diabetics. Also it has high concentration of organic acids (15-30%).
The three organic acids that have been identified are citric, malic, and tartaric. These have been known to give an overall boost to the immune system.
However, this not is good for women how are pregnant or trying to get pregnant as it known to cause miscarriage, read more here and here. It also known help to weight loss and depression.
Agua Flor de Jamaica/Agua Fresca flor de Jamaica/Hibiscus Tea
Ingredients
- ¼ cup dried flor de Jamaica/Hibiscus flower
- 3 cup Water
- 2 tablespoon Sugar /Sweeteners like splenda of your choice I didn’t use
- Ice cubes.
Instructions
- Place the dried flower in running water to remove the dirt for a 1 minute In a medium sauce pot add washed flower as well as 1 cup water, bring it to boil for 3 minutes.
- Transfer the both flower and water to bottle and chill it for 3 hours or overnight for better infusion. If you are using sugar, add to the infusion now.
- When you are ready to serve, strain the flower and squeeze the juice well and dilute with water enjoy with ice.
Notes
You also increase the sugar /or any sweetener if you want to use. I used without any sugar.
I don’t advise to add any tea flavors as it will spoil the flavor to Hibiscus.
You also make simple syrup to sweeten the drink.
Nutrition
Other sorrel leaves recipes are
Gongura pappu/ Pulicha keerai kootu/ Lentil stew with Roselle
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Suja Manoj says
New to me,sounds refreshing
Chitz says
Sanjay Kumar says
I have really liked your article on flavoured tea india with suitable recipes to taste. They were awesome as I have tried them at home and really enjoyed the taste. Thank You.
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