As those of you that read my blog regularly know I am crazy about green tea. I drink it all day long in different forms. Green tea has many health benefits, which I covered in this post. Today I decided to add a teaspoon of hibiscus powder to my usual green tea with ginger and vitamin C to see how it changed the flavor. Surprisingly the flavor remained the same but the tea had a very pleasant floral note from the teaspoon of hibiscus powder.
I decided to do a quick search to see if hibiscus had any nutritional value. Apparently hibiscus can help cholesterol from building up in your arteries. If you have high LDL cholesterol adding hibiscus to your tea could potentially have a positive benefit.
Additionally hibiscus is high in antioxidants and vitamin C (ascorbic acid) according to what I read here. According to this article the flowers “are rich in riboflavin, ascorbic acid, niacin, carotene, calcium, and iron”.
I had no idea that hibiscus was so good for me. The rich red color was what made me think it might be in high in anthocyanins (which it apparently is), but I was pleasantly surprised at the nutrition of this little flower. I will be buying more of the flowers when I get back to the Indian grocery store. I see no reason not to include them in our green tea when I want a different variation.
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