Top 5 Health Benefits of Hibiscus Tea

November 4, 2022

Hibiscus tea has gotten a lot of attention over the past few years, and with good reason – this delicious tropical tea has amazing health benefits and a unique, fruit-like flavor that can blend with nearly any of your favorite tea types. It’s been most famously used in Starbucks’ passion tea blend or Panera’s Plum Ginger Hibiscus Tea. It’s also widely available at your local grocery store in standalone form or in a variety of fruit and floral-based flavors.

Below, we’re exploring the health benefits you can enjoy from hibiscus tea and offering a deeper look inside this tropical tea’s flavor profile.

Health benefits of hibiscus tea: Is hibiscus tea healthy?

Hibiscus tea is incredibly healthy, especially in its most basic and unsweetened form. We’ve included the main health benefits of hibiscus tea below:

1. Lower blood pressure

According to the CDC, nearly 1 in 2 American adults struggle with hypertension – a condition defined by chronic high blood pressure and spikes. This can be fatal and can lead to lifelong complications such as heart failure, stroke, and other cardiac issues. Lowering blood pressure naturally is key to preemptively managing your risk for hypertension or directly addressing the symptoms of the disease. Hibiscus tea can be especially helpful as it promotes your body’s natural ability to regulate blood pressure and stress-induced vascular strain.

2. Support liver health

The liver is a vital organ in your body’s health and wellness process, responsible for metabolism, detoxing, and vitamin and mineral storage. The liver can struggle and be less efficient with high-sugar diets or overuse of alcohol, which are both common occurrences in the daily American diet. Hibiscus tea can naturally address liver strain and fatty build-up and support your liver’s overall function for a higher level of health.

3. Support health and wellness

With flu and illness becoming more common, finding sources of natural antioxidants is important to support your overall health and wellness. Many people are looking for a more preventative approach and are choosing to turn to natural sources like tea to support their immune systems.

Hibiscus tea is a natural source of antioxidants that fight against free radical damage in the body. Antioxidants also stimulate and build your immune system and mitigate the risks you may have for fatal diseases and conditions: such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune conditions.

4. Weight loss support

If you’re looking for help managing your weight loss, hibiscus tea can be a healthier alternative to crash diets and juice cleanses. The anthocyanins and phenolic compounds in the tea’s petals and leaves are key to stimulating your metabolism and regulating your body’s natural weight management processes. It also actively works to reduce fat absorption, offering you the potential for lasting results without any radical dietary changes.

If you do choose to use hibiscus tea for weight loss support, we recommend doing so under the supervision of a trusted medical professional. They’ll be able to evaluate your specific case and physical needs and help you to determine if hibiscus tea is the right choice for your weight management journey.

5. Lower cholesterol

There are two types of cholesterol in the body. Ideally, you’ll want higher HDL (high-density lipoprotein) over LDL – or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. LDL has been known as the “bad” cholesterol, as it can lead to arterial blockages, heart disease, and stroke. If you struggle with high cholesterol, you may need medical intervention from your family physician. They’ll be able to prescribe you medication that can help.

In addition to medication, addressing cholesterol through diet is a useful secondary supportive measure to take, making your medication experience more effective. Hibiscus tea is known to support lower LDL levels in the body due to its naturally occurring bioactive compounds. Regular drinkers saw improvement in just one month, in one of the most recent approved studies.

What does hibiscus tea taste like?

Hibiscus tea tastes naturally sweet, light, and floral, giving way to more rich and tart undertones. Many compare the mouthfeel and deeper flavor notes to cranberries, crabapple, or darker tropical fruits, finishing with a clean and refreshing taste that you’ll love. The taste of hibiscus tea may vary depending on how you choose to enjoy your tea. Generally, the lighter notes may come out more with cold brew methods. The tangy-sweet and bold flavors show up more with hotter blends.

Hibiscus tea is a fantastic herbal tea to blend with, working well with a variety of fruity and floral inclusions. If you like to drink it plain and are looking for ways to spice it up, consider adding in lemons, lemonade, brown sugar, or mint.

0 Comments

Tea Recipes

5 Tea-Champagne Cocktails to Ring in the New Year

December 8, 2016

The countdown to 2017 is on, and you’re starting to wonder who you’ll be kissing and what you’ll be sipping when the clock strikes midnight. While a glass of bubbly is a winning classic for any New Years toast, why not remix your tried and true with a splash of tea? That’s right, adding tea to champagne creates a memorable, distinct, and often beautiful beverage. Here are five tea-infused champagne cocktails to consider when planning how you’ll ring in the New Year:

1) Hibiscus Royale Champagne Cocktail

This concoction from Betty Crocker infuses bubbly champagne with hibiscus-raspberry flavors and a pop of color. Create a hibiscus tea simple syrup by steeping hibiscus-raspberry tea bags in sugar and water. Then add champagne and garnish with raspberries or lemon. Beautifully bright red and winningly fruity, start the New Year off right with this drink.

2) Green Tea Champagne

More and more people are starting their day with green smoothies packed with nutrients. Why not start off the New Year that way, too? This “green machine” from Rachel Ray is easy to make and will give you and your guests something welcomingly unexpected to raise in the air as you watch the ball drop. Simply combine green tea, lime guice, and agave or honey in a cocktail shaker and shake it like a polaroid picture. Pour into glasses, add champagne, and garish with mint for a final touch. We hope green goes with your outfit!

3) Earl Grey Tea Infused Champagne Cocktail

This cocktail from World Market combines tea-infused vodka and champagne for a double dose of booze. It takes a long time to make, so plan ahead. Start by placing 2 Earl Grey tea bags and 1 cup of vodka in an airtight container for 24 hours. Once time’s up, remove the tea bags and admire your tea-infused vodka. Simply add this flavored vodka to champagne, garnish with lemon, and toast the night away.

4) Kombucha Champagne With Thyme

This kombucha cocktail from The Clean Dish delivers the health benefits of kombucha and the bubbly delectability of champagne all in one glass in under five minutes. Simply combine equal amounts of kombucha and champagne, then add 2-3 small twigs of thyme. If you want a green beverage, use green tea kombucha. If not, stick with a black tea-based brand of the fermented probiotic. If you’ve always thought your champagne would benefit from a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts, then this is the cocktail for you.

5) White Peach and Green Tea Bellini

This recipe from blogger Molly Yeh combines green tea, gin, and champagne for a yummy treat. Combine one part muddled white peach and one part gin with two parts Prosecco and two parts green tea in a glass. (Yeh used Teavana’s Shaken Iced Peach Green Tea Lemonde, but we think any green tea will do.) Overachievers: garnish glasses with peach slices and sprinkle sugar on the rim for a snowy finish.

Happy New Year!

0 Comments

Tea Recipes

5 Recipes That Use Tea in Baked Goods

November 29, 2016

Dessert has become a way for chefs to showcase their creativity and reflect changing consumer preferences. From substituting avocado for butter to mashups like the cronut, dessert has become a delicious playground that promises innovation and sweet-tooth satisfaction. Consumers are more adventurous than ever, open to trying flavors from all over the globe in unexpected formats. Chefs are capitalizing on that by using tea leaves as an ingredient in desserts. From cookies and brownies to pie and cakes, tea isn’t just something you sip in between bites of dessert. It is the dessert. Here’s five baked goods recipes that put tea at the forefront:

1) White Chocolate Matcha Brownies

Green Eggs and Ham comes to mind with this recipe from blog Chocolate + Connie, which combines the star power of matcha and white chocolate to make unique green and white brownies. Flour, matcha powder, and melted white chocolate mix with milk, butter, sugar, and eggs to make the batter. White Chocolate chips add an extra dose of sweet texture to these yummy treats. Would you eat them in a house? Would you eat them with a mouse? Would you eat them after dinner? We think yes, ‘cause they’re a winner.

2) Hibiscus Tea and Poppy Seed Shortbread

Hibiscus tea infuses butter to kick off this recipe from Sprinkle Bakes. Start by heating unsalted butter in a saucepan and add hibiscus tea leaves, turning your butter a lovely shade of reddish pink. Pour this red mixture through a sieve and tea towel into a bowl. Cool the mixture in the refrigerator until it’s somewhat firm. Then combine it with sugar, vanilla, flour water, salt, and poppy seeds to make non-sticky dough. Pop the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes, then roll it out and cut into whatever shapes your heart desires. Transfer your shapes in the oven, and then prepare your taste buds for a scrumptious batch of shortbread cookies.

3) Sweet Tea Pie

It’s pretty common to chase a hunk of pie down with a cup of tea. Why not put tea in the pie? That’s just what this Sweet Tea Pie recipe from Tasting Table does. The filling includes two orange pekoe (black) tea bags’ worth of tea, along with cornmeal, butter, eggs, sugar and flower. Sweet tea is a staple of the South, but we think this pie will resonate with taste buds from sea to shining sea.

4) Jasmine Shortbread Sandwiches with Grapefruit Curd

Jasmine tea makes these cookies from Martha Stewart stand out. The jasmine “lends a sweet, floral balance to the tart grapefruit-curd filling,” according to domestic guru’s site. The jasmine tea blends with butter, sugar, vanilla, flour, and salt to make shortbread dough, which is then baked into cookies that sandwich a delectable sour grapefruit filling. This recipe takes over 4 hours, but it’s sure to provide you with a unique, tasty treat and bragging rights for days.

5) Chai Shortbread Cookies with Sea Salt

The basic flavors of chai—cinnamon and cardamom—are a perfect candidate for your sweet-tooth post-dinner needs. And these chai shortbread cookies with chocolate and sea salt from Foodie Crush fire on all cylinders. Simply adding a tablespoon of fine ground chai tea to shortbread batter infuses the dough with auspicious notes of chai. Once the cookies are baked, dip them in chocolate chip ganache and sprinkle them with sea salt for a finish that adds extra flavor, texture, and a definite “WOW” factor.

0 Comments