Homemade Hibiscus Syrup (from Homegrown Hibiscus Tree)

During the ongoing pandemic, one of the most crucial thing to keep in mind is to stay healthy and fit all the time. But apart from the pandemic, every person desire to live a good and healthy life because as time flies, every human ages, and with age most of the time comes a long list diseases and problems that shortens our life or makes it hard and painful to live. To maintain a healthy life, I've brought you something that would be very helpful for your day to day life.

Here in India, the hibiscus flower is commonly found throughout the country and grows in a variety of colours. The most common being the colour red, is used to make a lot of things such as, tea, shampoo, soap, hand-wash, beverages and a few others mainly because of its medicinal values.

It greatly helps in:

1. Lowering blood pressure
2. Supporting healthy cholesterol and triglycerides
3. Fighting against certain cancer
4. Combating obesity
5. Preventing kidney stones

In this Instructables, I will be showing you the quickest and easiest way to make yourself a refreshing glass hibiscus syrup. It is completely organic and no preservatives and chemicals have been used throughout the recipe. (In this Instructables I've made a serving for three, but I'll be telling you the exact ratio of all the ingredients so that you can make for as many people as you want.)

If you managed making yourself a glass of this juice and found it delicious then you could let me in the comment section at the very bottom. Now let's get started!

The ingredients you will need to make this beverage are listed below. (The list for making 3 servings)

• 6 Hibiscus Flowers
• 1 and half Lemons
• 4 spoons of sugar (normal spoon size) (Instead of sugar, you could use honey or maple syrup)

Kitchen supplies that you will need:

• 4 glasses (300ml each)
• 2 small bowls for sugar and lemon juice
• 1 big bowl to mix the syrup
• 1 big steel bowl for boiling the flowers

If you have a hibiscus tree growing in your garden, or at your friend's house, then pluck six fresh flowers. If you don't get to find a hibiscus tree, do not worry. You will definitely find them at a nearby flower market close to where you live.

Once plucked, gently wash them with room temperature water.

Once washed, remove the stems and gently remove the pistils from each hibiscus without damaging the flower. We remove the stem because it's not edible and it doesn't contain any vitamin and medicinal value. In the case of the pistil, we remove them as it contains pollen and we don't want that in our juice. The main part needed from the flowers are their petals.

Take a big enough bowl so that the flowers are separated and not on top of one another. Add a glass of water in the bowl and wait until it starts boiling. Once the water is boiling, turn off the oven and drop the flowers into the bowl. Make sure all the petals are under the water level so that we get most of the colour out of the hibiscus flowers. Cover the bowl and set a timer for 15min.

While the flowers are being soaked in the boiling water, you can get the other ingredients ready. For three servings, I have used one and half lemons, the ratio being 1 : 2. To sweeten the beverage, take four spoons of sugar. (One and one-third spoon of sugar for each glass.)

Important!

Instead of using sugar, one can use honey or maple syrup if they have diabetes.

Once your 15min timer goes off, remove the lid covering the bowl and with the help of a strainer, pour the dark red liquid into a glass and discard the remaining flowers. Now that you have the concentrated hibiscus syrup, you will need two equal sized glasses of water to dilute the concentrated syrup.

Pour the lemon juice into the glass of concentrated hibiscus syrup. You will instantly realise the dark concentrated syrup turning bright red. Once the lemon juice is added, pour the concentrated syrup into a big bowl so that you can add the two glasses of water to dilute the syrup. After diluting, pour the sugar and mix well.

Once the syrup is mixed well, add ice cubes to your glass and pour yourself a glass of the homemade hibiscus syrup and Netflix and Chill while at the same time, keeping a healthy diet and living a good life.

Thanks for your patience to go through my Instructables. If you found it interesting and worth your time reading and trying out this beverage, then do put it up in the 'I made it!' section.

Thank you once again!