Red Hibiscus Lemonade

How about a flower juice instead of a fruit juice for a change, to beat the heat? Yup, you read it right, flower juice. :-)

Don’t go eeewww.. at the thought of this. This is one hell of a delicious juice. You’ll love it & won’t even be able to tell what juice it is. It’s that fabulous & phenomenal.

A chilled hibiscus drink will refresh you like nothing else. Also, this hibiscus lemonade prepared using hibiscus petals is super, super healthy. It has a whole lot of health benefits & has also proven to have the highest amounts of anti-oxidants. So, it has anti-aging effects on your body. Wanna stay young? Have this hibiscus lemonade. No kidding. Need more reasons to have this drink??

While making this hibiscus cooler it feels like you're back in your chemistry lab doing a little chemistry experiment. The colour of this lemonade/sherbet changes when you add in lemon juice. One second it is this light discoloured water and the next it’s this beautiful pink coloured juice. The acid in lemon juice does the trick and gives this juice a lovely, beautiful colour. And you thought that was artificial colour? Nope, that’s natural colour in the pic above.

You can make this lemonade/sherbet and store it in the fridge for a week. Enjoy a glass of chilled drink daily, whenever needed.

So, give my mom's age old recipe a try. I'm sure you'll fall in love with this age old, bloody delicious drink. :)

Ingredients:

10-15 red hibiscus flowers
1/2 a cup of sugar
1 lemon
2 cups of water
3/4 teaspoon of cumin powder
A pinch of cardamom powder

Makes: 2 glasses of juice

Prep Time: 10-12 minutes

Preparation Method:

Separate out hibiscus petals from the flower and wash them. Only the petals of the flower are used to make this sherbet/lemonade.
Boil two cups of water. Once the water is rolling hot, add in petals to the boiling water. Add in cumin powder, mix well and remove the boiling water off heat.
The colour of the flower immediately drains out into the water and it shrinks considerably.
Close the pot of water with a lid and keep it aside for 15-20 minutes.
Then allow it to cool down completely.
Once cooled, smash the petals a little with your hand. Strain out the hibiscus petals and discard them.
To the hibiscus water, mix in lemon juice, sugar and cardamom powder. With the addition of lemon juice the colour of the lemonade magically changes to a beautiful red.
Stir well until the sugar dissolves.
Serve chilled or serve over ice and enjoy!
You can make this lemonade/sherbet and store it in the fridge for a week. Enjoy a glass of chilled drink daily, whenever needed.

Side Note:

5 petalled red hibiscus is usually used to make this lemonade. I’m not sure if you can use other red hibiscus (with many more petals) or any other coloured hibiscus (other than red) for that matter. If you do know more about the varieties of hibiscus that you can use to make this lemonade do let me know through the comments below.
My mom says to make this lemonade, it’s best to pluck out red hibiscus flowers before 7a.m, as soon as they bloom completely. As the amount of anthocyanins in the flowers are at it’s peak early morning. How true is this? I do not know. Do let me know if you are a botany expert. :-)
You can also add soda to make a fizzy drink, use one part hibiscus concentrate and two parts of soda.

Here are a few more traditional drinks: Poppy seeds juice, Sesame juice, Green gram juice, Cantaloupe drink, Finger millet juice.

While doing a little bit of research I realised how popular hibiscus drinks, hibiscus teas are throughout the world. It’s not just me and my family who loves hibiscus drinks. Jamaica is the Spanish name for Hibiscus Pods, also known by the names Indian Sorrel and Rosella. You’ll find more about it here. You’ll find many more recipes for hibiscus drinks, cocktail recipes here. If you can’t find fresh red hibiscus flowers then you can make some hibiscus tea with dried Jamaica as mentioned here or buy hibiscus tea bags to satiate your taste buds. But nothing beats the juice prepared from some fresh hibiscus flowers. So, get hold of some red hibiscus. :)

Tags: Hibiscus Juice, flower juice, dashavala, dashval, healthy drink, healthy juice, lemonade, summer cooler, summer drink, refreshing juice, summer juice, homemade juice, rosella, Jamaica, Hibiscus lemonade, Sorrel drink, sorrel juice, anti-cancer, anti-aging, high in anti-oxidants.