Sweet and Healthy Hibiscus Tea Benefits
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Tea is one of the most natural methods you may consider in your health maintenance routine. It may even help with some of the aspects of healing. Hibiscus tea in particular can be especially beneficial. Best known for its bright color and sweet flavor, hibiscus tea is sometimes combined with other teas to increase the medicinal benefits or to enhance the taste of a bitter tea without adding sugar. Learn more about this sweet tea and how to prepare it.
Hibiscus Flower
There are hundreds of varieties of the hibiscus flower. They each follow the general properties of the hibiscus flower, but may vary in their color and specific differences in petal shapes such as length and width. In general, plants that are classified as hibiscus flowers have trumpet-shaped flowers that include 5 or more petals. The colors that these flowers can be found in are too numerous to try to list.
How to Make Hibiscus Tea
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Davidson’s Organic Hibiscus Flowers |
Most of the time when you make a tea, you will bring the water to a boil and insert the tea into the water. Then, you allow it to “steep” so that all of the medicinal qualities can be obtained. If you steep it too long you may get a bitter flavor. If you don’t get the water hot enough, you may not receive any of the medicinal qualities you want from the tea. When it comes to hibiscus tea, you can prepare and enjoy it in a variety of ways including hot, cold or using the natural flower.
Preparing the Hibiscus Flower for Tea
It is possible to make tea from fresh herbs and flowers. and it’s a fairly simple process.
- Pick the flower from your garden.
- Put it in your favorite safe spot for drying herbs and flowers.
- Allow the entire plant to completely dry out.
- Remove the stems and leaves from the flower. (These are much easier to remove when the plant is dried, hence using this method)
- Once the stems and leaves have been removed, gather the petals and prepare to use them to make your hibiscus tea.
Hot Tea
To make hot hibiscus tea, bring the water to a boil. Place your hibiscus petals in your tea bag, or if you prefer, allow them to float freely in the water. Insert petals into the water and allow to steep for three to five minutes, as you would most other teas.
Cold Tea
Use can easily make Iced Hibiscus tea but it takes longer than if you use the hot method, as you would expect. To begin, prepare the plant as you would if you were making the hot version from the petals. Then, place one cup of petals in 8 cups of cold water and allow to sit for one to two days. When the color begins to fade, your tea is ready for drinking. Refrigerate the tea for use later if you wish.
Health Benefits of Hibiscus Tea
Like most natural teas, hibiscus tea is used for more than just flavoring your water or adding flavor to another tea. It has its own medicinal properties that can easily be combined with others, but works very well on its own.
- Hibiscus tea is one of the many teas that work well to lower your blood pressure. If you already have low blood pressure, you should avoid drinking this tea. But, if you have high cholesterol or high blood pressure, this tea might aid in reversing your symptoms.
- Hibiscus tea is also known to be used as a body refrigerant and to aid in weight loss. Because of its cooling effect on the body, hibiscus tea is thought to be beneficial to those who suffer from hot flashes due to menopause and peri-menopause. In fact, it may be the ability that this beverage has to modify estrogen levels that causes the cooling effect in the first place.
- This tea also acts as an anti-inflammatory, making it useful for people who suffer from pains due to inflammation. Some of the pains it may relieve include migraines, joint aches and arthritis. Because of its anti-inflammatory qualities and its lack of caffeine, it is the perfect tea to drink if you are seeking to treat a headache, but wish to avoid the traditional methods of using caffeine to treat a headache.
- If you are someone who prefers to add a citrus flavor to their tea, this type of tea with a slice of citrus fruit such as lemon may serve to increase your vitamin C levels even more. On the other hand, if you dislike citrus fruits but need to consume more vitamin C, this is the perfect tea.
HibIscus Warnings
It’s important to note that you should always consult your physician before considering replacing your medication with any other kind of healing method or combining your natural healing methods with ingestion of man-made medicines. Teas can come with their own side effects and may react when combined with the use of medications.
Hibiscus tea may have some serious side effects that could conflict with current health issues. For some people, it causes hallucinations, modified estrogen levels and may lower fertility levels. If you are taking medication for fertility or are concerned about estrogen levels, consult with your doctor about drinking this tea.
Obviously, if you hallucinate during or after consuming this tea, discontinue use of it immediately. Because hibiscus tea does have such serious potential side effects, it is best that you drink it in small doses to measure how it impacts you personally.
Watch this video which discusses how must hibiscus tea is too much.
Why do you drink hibiscus tea?