How to Make Hibiscus Tea

Making Hot Hibiscus Tea

Set a pot of water on the stove to boil. While you're waiting for it to heat up, you can ready your other ingredients and clean out the teapot you'll be using. See our guide to boiling water for stove and microwave suggestions.

Put the dried hibiscus flowers into an empty teapot. The recipe calls for about 2 teaspoons (10 ml), but you can use more or less as needed for a stronger or weaker flavor. Hibiscus does not contain caffeine, so adding a lot won't give you a sudden "jolt" of energy.

Pour the boiling water into the teapot. Fill the teapot to the brim (or simply add as much as you plan to drink). Use oven mitts and/or a tea cozy to protect yourself from burns here. Pour the water slowly and steadily to avoid splashing.

For caffeinated tea, add a tea bag to the water. As noted above, hibiscus tea doesn't have any caffeine on its own. If you'd like to get some energy from the tea (or if you just like the taste), you can carefully add a bag of your preferred caffeinated tea to the hot water at this point. Hibiscus tea tastes great on its own, however. For extra caffeine, add multiple bags.

Leave the tea to steep for five minutes. This is the easy part — all you need to do is wait. About five minutes should be long enough for the flowers to give the water a somewhat tart taste and a pleasant red color. Let the tea steep longer for a stronger flavor. Let it steep for less time if you want a weaker flavor.

Strain the tea as you pour it. Now, you just need to get the flowers out. If your teapot does not have a built-in filter or mesh, pour the tea into your cup through a fine metal strainer. In a pinch, you can also use a paper coffee filter. You can also simply leave the hibiscus leaves in the tea if you like. They won't hurt you — there is no current evidence that they are poisonous in any way.

Sweeten the tea as desired. Your tea is now ready to enjoy. If you like, you can add as much of your preferred sweetener as you want (or none at all). The smooth, sweet taste of honey goes especially well with the tartness of hibiscus. Sugar and zero-calorie sweeteners are also good choices.

Add cinnamon, mint, or lime wedge as garnish. If you want to give your tea a little "something extra," try one of these garnishes (or all three). The flavor and aroma of these substances complement hibiscus tea for three different delicious combinations. If you're using mint, lay the leaves face-up in the palm of your hand and give them a slap by clapping your hands together. This is a technique used by bartenders in drinks like mojitos to release the flavor and aroma of the mint.

Making Jamaica-style Hibiscus Iced Tea

Add hibiscus and water to pitcher. Once you have the right ingredients, making hibiscus iced tea is easy — it just takes a long time. Start by putting the hibiscus in a pitcher and pouring in water. Stir briefly to combine. If you're using caffeinated tea bags, cinnamon sticks, lime wedges, or mint leaves in your tea, add them now as well.

Refrigerate overnight. Cold water takes a long time to absorb flavor from other ingredients, so you'll need to let your tea steep for at least 8 to 12 hours. Keep it cool in the fridge while it slowly picks up the flavor and color of the hibiscus. Cover the tea with foil or plastic wrap to protect it from drips and crumbs.

Strain and serve over ice. When the tea has gained a satisfying flavor and color, remove it from the fridge. Fill cups with ice and pour the tea through a strainer or paper filter to remove the flowers and whatever other ingredients you added. Your iced tea is now ready to enjoy! For presentation, you can re-garnish each glass with cinnamon, lime, etc. if you wish.

To sweeten, add simple syrup. You can sweeten iced tea with sugar, honey, etc., but this doesn't work very well because cold water doesn't dissolve solids very quickly. A better idea is to use simple syrup, which can sweeten the tea right away because it is liquid. See our guide to making this sweetener for detailed instructions. To make simple syrup, just heat equal parts water and sugar in a pan on the stove. Stir well to combine. When the sugar has completely dissolved, you have simple syrup. Continuing to heat the syrup past this point will make it thicker. Eventually, it will turn into caramel, which you probably don't want. 1 cup of simple syrup (made from 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar) will make the tea quite sweet. 1/4 or 1/3 cup will give a much more mild sweetness.

Preparing Your Own Hibiscus

Find ripe hibiscus flowers. A few days after hibiscus flowers bloom, their petals start to wrinkle and wilt. Eventually, they will fall off. Wrinkles on the petals are a sign that the plant is ripe and ready to harvest. Hibiscus plants are capable of blooming year-round. They are most likely to do this during the spring and summer when the weather is best, but they can even bloom in the winter in suitable climates.

Pick the calyx. At the base of the hibiscus flower should be a round, bulb-like part that connects it to the stem. This is the calyx. If the plant is ripe, the calyx will be firm and red. Pull the entire flower (calyx and petals) from the stem — it should snap off. Remove the petals to expose the calyx.

Remove the seed pods. Inside each calyx is a single spherical seed pod. You want to remove this before you make the tea while keeping the calyx as intact as possible. The easiest way to do this will usually be to simply cut a vertical slit in the side of the calyx and pop the seed pod out with your fingers. Don't worry too much about mangling the calyx as you get the pod out. It won't affect the taste — it's mostly for presentation's sake.

Use the calyxes in your tea. Wash the calyxes once all the seed pods are removed. They're now ready for use in your tea. Use the calyxes just like you would use dried hibiscus in either of the recipes above.

Alternatively, dry and store in an airtight container. If you don't want to use the hibiscus to make tea right away, pat the calyxes dry with a paper towel, then let them dry completely before storing them. There are several ways you can do this: Seal the flowers in an airtight container with silica. This is the same chemical used in the drying packets sometimes found in clothes pockets. You can buy silica desiccant (the kind used for drying) from chemical supply retailers. Put the hibiscus on a rack or tray in the oven at a low temperature (like 100 degrees F) for several hours. See our article on drying flowers for details. If the weather's hot and dry, you can also leave them on a drying rack in the sun. Try to put them somewhere animals won't get to them.