Rose Hibiscus Tea

A blend of dried rose petals and hibiscus calyces. Hibiscus supplies the color and the tartness, and the rose adds a perfumed, honeyed softness. Steeped in a teapot at 95°C for five to eight minutes, hot or cold.

Origin & Story

Roses have been drunk for as long as they have been grown. The damask rose, one of the oldest cultivated roses, is a hybrid whose origin is traced to the foothills of Central Asia or Iran, and it is the rose behind much of the world's rose water, rose oil and rose tea. Bulgaria's Rose Valley, the Isparta region of Turkey and Iran are among its great growing regions.

In Iran, rose tea is part of hospitality: dried petals of the Mohammadi rose served with sugar or honey, often with petals still floating. In Turkey and across the Middle East rose turns up in jam, sherbet and Turkish delight, and dried roses are sold in spice bazaars.

Hibiscus is the counterweight. Rose can taste perfumed on its own, and hibiscus gives it a tart, fruity spine and turns the cup pink-red, which makes the pair a natural for drinking cold. The karkade of Egypt is the best-known hibiscus tradition, and the earliest recorded brewing of hibiscus is placed in Egypt and Sudan.

Use dried rose petals or buds sold for tea, not florist roses, which are not grown to be eaten. Rose alone is often brewed at 85 to 90°C, so for a blend with hibiscus a teapot just off the boil works well.

Steep 4 g of rose and hibiscus in 240 ml of water at 95°C for five to eight minutes, strain, and serve hot or over ice.

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