Hibiscus Tea

The Hibiscus (Hibiscus Sabdariffa) flower is a very common herbal drink all over the world. It has many names such as roselle, flor de Jamaica and sorrel and has been used as herbal and medicinal tea by cultures in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean for hundreds of years. The flower itself is a deep red in color and the tea has a sharp cranberry flavor to it so people use sugar or honey to sweeten it up a bit. Even the ancient Pharaohs of Egypt enjoyed a glass of hibiscus tea on a regular basis. If it’s good enough for a Pharaoh I’m sure you’ll enjoy hibiscus tea too?

Caffeine Free
This is the first real benefit of this tea is that it contains no caffeine unlike most other teas. This means it’s an ideal drink when you just want to relax or if you want a cup of tea before you go to bed at night. More and more people are trying to reduce how much caffeine they drink so hibiscus tea is an ideal way to help with that.

Antioxidant Rich
The hibiscus flower is extremely rich in Vitamin C and other antioxidants (anthocyanins) so it makes a delicious daily addition to your health requirements and will help you fight off those nasty annual colds and bugs you might fall prey to. You’re getting a tasty tea that’s also very good for you!

Blood Pressure and Cholesterol
The biggest benefit of drinking hibiscus tea that has shown up over the last few years is the dramatic effect that regularly drinking a few cups of this tea each day can have on both high blood pressure and high cholesterol. This is due to the vaso-dilatory effects of the natural chemicals which occur in this plant. This basically means it can help the blood vessels in your body dilate so they don’t get clogged up and cause high blood pressure.

This isn’t just an alternative medicine theory either – there have been several serious clinical studies into the medical benefits of this wonderful tasting tea. So far the results of the tests have been nothing short of remarkable.

The antioxidants in this flower (anthocyanins) can also help prevent damage to the heart and surrounding blood vessels by fighting off the free radicals that wander around the human body causing cell damage and disease so this tea is really, really good for you.

Weight Loss
There is an enzyme in hibiscus tea that prevents your body absorbing all the carbs you eat in a meal. So having a cup of hibiscus tea right after a meal can actually help you lose weight over the long-term by preventing the absorption of starchy carbs and sugars.

Fevers
Several studies on animals have shown that this tea can effectively be used to treat fevers because it has something called an antipyretic effect. The exact way that hibiscus tea does this is not fully understood but it does seem to be effective in reducing a fever in animals at least.

So as you can see hibiscus tea is not only a tasty and refreshing tea enjoyed all over the world it’s also a perfect way to help keep your body health, happy and caffeine free.