Karkade (Egyptian Hibiscus Tea): Step-by-Step Recipe
I can't remember summers this brutally hot from my childhood. Sure, it would get to +30, maybe +32, but over +40… There's no way to cool down, and drinking water doesn't help either, because every glass is out through your skin in an instant and you feel even worse. Plenty of people turn to beer, but that tends to end badly.
Weather this extreme isn't typical for us. I always wondered how people manage to live in deserts. Until I went to Egypt. In the Nile valley, closer to its edge, where the desert begins, the temperature sometimes reaches +50. And people live there.
The men walk around in colourful loose robes and, by the look of it, feel perfectly fine. And they drink a cold drink that ranges from deep ruby to dark scarlet. It's a chilled infusion of hibiscus flowers, known as karkade (or karkadeh). They say it is the national drink of Egypt and Sudan.
What is karkade? It's an infusion or decoction of hibiscus flowers (Hibiscus sabdariffa). The plant is also called the Sudanese rose, rose of Sharon, kenaf, خبازى. The drink's sweet-and-sour, fragrant taste quenches thirst wonderfully, even if you drink it in small sips.
Karkade is not a tea, as people tend to think. It has nothing to do with tea. Surprisingly, the hot brew is drunk as a cooling drink. I remember that in Egypt we bought a kilo of flowers, ready for brewing, for just 4 L.E. (Egyptian pounds), less than $1. Ever since, in the hot season we make the cold drink at home almost every day, only a little more aromatic — an alternative to iced tea or homemade kvass.
Ingredients
5 l of drink
- Dried hibiscus flowers 4-5 tbsp
- Cardamom 1-2 pods
- Sugar 5-6 tbsp
- Water 5 l
Step-by-step recipe
- Egyptians say that karkade is a cure for every illness. Everyone says that about their own traditional national foods. But given that the drink is a source of vitamins, antioxidants and other good things, there is some truth in the claim. Still, it's worth remembering that, as they write, hibiscus affects blood pressure.
- For everyday drinking in the heat, it's best to make 3-5 litres for the family, and to do it in the evening. That way the drink chills overnight.
- To do this, bring water to a boil in a large pot. As soon as the water boils, turn off the heat and start steeping the flowers.
- Traditionally the flowers are steeped for 5-8 minutes without boiling. Boiling breaks down the beneficial compounds and the colouring pigments — anthocyanins, which strengthen the walls of blood vessels and regulate their permeability. Besides, boiling turns the drink grey. There are also ways of “cold” brewing hibiscus and other refinements.
- Without overthinking it, simply tip the dried flowers into the boiling water, add the broken cardamom pods (strictly optional) and cover the pot with a lid. Time 5 minutes, but no more than 8 minutes.
- When the time is up, add the sugar. The amount of sugar is entirely a matter of taste. By and large, sugar isn't really needed there at all — the drink will be tasty, but very unusual and rather intense. We add sugar at the rate of 1 tbsp per 1 litre of drink. Or even less. Dissolve the sugar and set the pot with the drink in cold water to cool.
- As soon as the drink has cooled to room temperature, strain it and pour it into bottles. Plastic 1-2 litre mineral water bottles come in very handy here. Put the bottles in the fridge for a few hours, or better still overnight.
- To quench your thirst, drink the cold drink in small sips. In Egypt the tea is drunk from small glasses.
| Yield: | 5 l of drink |
| Calories: | 37 |
| Prep: | 20 mins |
| Cook: | 40 mins |
| Total: | 5-6 hours including chilling |
| Category: | Desserts and Drinks |
| Cuisine: | Middle Eastern |
| Rating: |
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