Learn how to make hibiscus tea recipe with just 2 simple ingredients. It's delicious hot or cold and comes with lots of great health benefits. You can make berry hibiscus iced tea with loose dried flowers or a hibiscus tea bag and use your favorite sweetener (mine is honey!) to sweeten to your liking. Add a wedge of lemon and cheers!
Hibiscus is a flowering plant known for its large, colorful blooms, and it belongs to the mallow family, Malvaceae, which are native to warm temperate and tropical regions, including central and West Africa. Traditionally, it has been used to support overall health.
For this recipe to transform this beautiful bright-red bloom into a refreshing drink, the variety most commonly used for tea is Hibiscus sabdariffa, also called roselle.
What does hibiscus taste like? Hibiscus has a tangy, tart flavor, similar to cranberries. It's slightly sweet and refreshing, making it perfect for both hot and iced drinks.
Looking for more healthy drinks?
Check out tomato juice, cranberry juice recipe, and honey citrus mint tea.
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Recipe Overview
- Prep and Cook Time: 10 minutes to prep
- Cooking Method: No-cook
- Dietary Info: GAPS, Paleo, Whole30, Primal, Ancestral diet
- Tools Needed: Quart-size jar, pitcher
- Skill Level: Easy
What is an ancestral diet? Read my post on what nourishing foods are based on the traditional dietary principles of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Hibiscus Tea Health Benefits
In addition to the fact that hibiscus is naturally caffeine-free, this fruity tea boasts many health benefits, according to Cleveland Health Clinic, including:
- It's packed with antioxidants like vitamin C and anthocyanin, which may help to destroy free radicals in the body, and thus may help with recovery from cold and flu.
- It may reduce inflammation because of it's anti-inflammatory effects.
- Clinical trials have shown that drinking hibiscus tea may lower blood pressure and cholesterol.
- Hibiscus may also help fight bacteria thanks in part to it's antibacterial properties.
Reasons to Love this Hibiscus Iced Tea
Aside from the numerous health benefits that hibiscus tea offers, what I love is that it perfectly disguises itself as a junky, corn-syrup-laden counterpart fruit punch.
The bright red color is visually stunning and it easily can be passed as store-bought punch. You and your kids will love it!
I like to enjoy a refreshing berry hibiscus iced tea on a hot day or sip on a warm, soothing cup of hibiscus tea with a hint of honey when the weather gets chilly.
Hibiscus tea is the gift that keeps on giving and it's great year-round!
Ingredients for Hibiscus Tea
Learn how to make hibiscus tea from dried flowers with 2 simple ingredients. This easy recipe takes only 10 minutes and can be enjoyed immediately or set in the fridge to chill. See the recipe card for exact quantities.
- Dried hibiscus: This is the key ingredient and I recommend buying dried hibiscus flowers in bulk. The hibiscus is what gives the tea its signature deep red color and tart, cranberry-like flavor. Don't have dried flowers? Use 3-4 hibiscus tea bags from Traditional Medicinals. It's the best and has very rich flavor, much like dried flowers.
- Honey: To sweeten, raw honey is the best here but you can use maple syrup or keep it unsweetened.
- Water: Bring your water to a boil in a tea kettle or a small saucepan. You only need a few cups of hot water to steep the hibiscus and the rest can be chilled or room temperature water.
- Berries, lemon, or mint: These garnishes are totally optional and they subtly alter the overall flavor.
How to Make Hibiscus Tea
The complete printable recipe is below in the recipe card for your convenience. Follow these simple step-by-step instructions for the best results.
Step 1. Steep
Add the dried hibiscus flour into a quart-size jar and pour warm-hot water over it. Cover and steep.
Step 2. Strain
Strain the hibiscus into a pitcher. Add honey and stir to dissolve and mix well.
Step 3: Pour the remaining water and stir to combine. Add berries and lemon if desired.
Helpful Tips
- Time saving tip - Consider steeping hibiscus overnight at room temperature for a more robust flavor. You can also do a second steep using the same hibiscus flowers so you get the most out of the dried flowers.
- No honey? - If you don't like honey or don't have it, you can sweeten with maple syrup, coconut sugar, or even monk fruit (for low-sugar hibiscus tea). You can also completely omit the sweetener and enjoy the refreshingly tart drink as is.
- Wait to add honey - Avoid adding honey to hot hibiscus tea as it will lose all beneficial enzymes in the heat. Either add ice to the pitcher to cool down the tea rapidly or wait for it to cool naturally.
Essential Hibiscus Tea Tools & Links
Here's what you'll need to effortlessly make this tea:
- Quart-size jar: I like mason jars any time I use hot liquids because they are so solid. This wide-mouth quart size jar will serve you again and again but I love these Weck tulip jars with glass lids that just sit on top.
- Dried hibiscus flowers: I like these organic cut and sifted hibiscus flowers and they are very inexpensive when buying in bulk. If you don't want to mess with dried flowers, Traditional Medicinals hibiscus tea bags will work.
- Pitcher: A 2-liter glass pitcher with a lid and spout is ideal but I have also used ½-gallon size mason jars to hold hibiscus iced tea.
Variations
- Serve it hot. Instead of diluting it with ice to chill hibiscus tea, serve it warm, similar to tea and sweeten with honey if desired.
- Make it fizzy. To make a sparkling beverage with hibiscus tea, swap the second quart of water with sparkling mineral water (my favorites are Gerolsteiner and Mountain Valley for their high mineral content).
- Berry-licious. For a refreshing berry hibiscus iced tea, muddle raspberries in the pitcher or directly in your glass before adding strained hibiscus tea.
- Spice it up. Add a cinnamon stick or star anise during brewing to infuse some warming spices.
Wondering how to serve this berry hibiscus iced tea to make it a complete meal?
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Frequently Asked Questions
Hibiscus tea can safely be kept in the fridge in a covered jar or pitcher for up to 2 weeks. Even if it's sweetened with honey, as long as it's refrigerated and hasn't been contaminated with other foods, it's safe to store it for that long.
Yes, you can use fresh flowers but you may need to adjust the quantity since dried flowers are more concentrated. Fresh flowers typically require a larger volume to achieve the same flavor.
Yes, in most cases you can continue to pour hot water over the spent flowers to extract as much flavor and color from them but I wouldn't do it more than 2 or 3 times because it will lack flavor by that point.
Looking for more related recipes? Here are some ideas:
Did you make this Berry Hibiscus Iced Tea recipe? Please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ recipe rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comments. Thank you!💚
Printable Recipe
Berry Hibiscus Tea Recipe
Ingredients
- ¼- ½ cup dried hibiscus flowers or 4 hibiscus tea bags
- 7 cups filtered water
- ¼ cup raw honey to taste
- fresh berries or lemon optional
Instructions
- Steep: Add the dried hibiscus flour into a quart-size jar and pour warm-hot water over it. Cover and allow to steep 10 minutes or more.
- Strain: Strain the hibiscus into a pitcher. Add honey and stir to dissolve and mix well.
- Add: Pour the remaining water and stir to combine. Add berries and lemon if desired.
Notes
- Consider steeping hibiscus overnight at room temperature for a more robust flavor. You can also do a second steep using the same hibiscus flowers.
- Avoid adding honey to hot hibiscus tea as it will lose all beneficial enzymes in the heat.
- For a refreshing berry hibiscus tea recipe, muddle raspberries in the pitcher or directly in your glass before adding strained hibiscus tea.
- Other sweetener suggestions are maple syrup, coconut sugar, or monk fruit if wanting to keep this drink low-sugar.
JES says
This sounds delicious! 🙂
Joy says
What a pretty color, I bet my kids would love this too, it sounds delicious!
Deborah Davis says
Refreshing! I am so delighted that you shared your healthy and delicious Hibiscus Punch with us. I'm Pinning and sharing this!
Jenn says
This looks very refreshing and healthy for you!
Paige says
Where do you find the flowers to use in this recipe?
Anya says
Hi Paige, you can find the hibiscus dried flowers in bulk on amazon. Link in the post. 🙂
ColoringPagesWK says
What a vibrant and refreshing recipe! The combination of hibiscus, ginger, and citrus sounds absolutely delightful. I can already imagine sipping on this punch on a hot summer day, feeling instantly revitalized and invigorated. The addition of honey adds a nice touch of sweetness without overpowering the natural flavors of the ingredients. Thank you for sharing this fantastic recipe, I can't wait to give it a try!
Anya says
Ginger and citrus zest sounds wonderful!