Mint, Hibiscus Rosehips Tea – a DIY Cold-busting Vitamin C Tonic

It’s that time again, the holidays are here and a secret bonus to family gatherings is making the rounds–namely the Crud.  That dry cough, runny nose, low energy yearly visitor.  It seems that everyone has her own method for dealing with the crud: self-medicate with an endless supply of Ricola cough drops, ignore it and keep to yourself, ignore it and pass it along because it came from somewhere…  It is everywhere, sometimes doubling back before it’s ever really left.

Here’s a delicious alternative to suffering in silence broken only by fits of hacking, dry coughs: Mint-Hibiscus tea.  We use loose leaf peppermint, dried hibiscus flower, fresh rosehips from the garden and sliced fresh ginger.  If you don’t happen to have those things on hand, it’s not as hard as you may think, to come by the needed ingredients.  Any good grocery with a decent stock of Mexican foods will have packets of Yerba Buena (spearmint), and usually a bulk bin of jamaica (hibiscus flowers).  Or, there’s always Amazon.com.  

Now, add water and wait about 5 minutes.  Press or strain the tea, add a teaspoonful of honey and squeeze in the juice of a quarter lemon.  Use a silver spoon for an additional boost to your immunities, let it linger a bit in the tea with added lemon juice for a few minutes.

Here’s the full recipe: Mint, Hibiscus & Rosehips Tea — DIY throat soothing + vitamin C rich tea

Enjoy!  It is as delicious as it is beautiful.