Hibiscus

Today I showed up at work 2 hours earlier than I needed to because I misread my schedule. Naturally I sat down with a flight of hibiscus and drank until my stomach acid started to bother me. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Hibiscus flowers are very random in their weight, so to ‘count flowers’ per pot will give wildly unpredictable results. Sometimes they weigh 0.4g, other times 1.2g so to do this properly you’ll need a good scale.

All pots were brewed with water from the boiler (hot tap water), no agitation during brewing, and maybe it’s worth noting that I have a sore throat and just ate a spicy mutton curry. The weakest pot had 1 flower at .4g, it was followed by the other 5 pots with 1.3g, 2.4g, 3.5g, 7g, ending with 11g.

0.4g:330ml had a baaaaaaarely pink color. It smelled sour, I guess hibiscus has a unique aroma because it smells like hibiscus even at this dilution. Reminds me of water from a garden hose sitting in the sun. No surprise that it tastes like water too, it’s slightly tart (but I think that could be overlooked)

1.3g had a color like the old MS Paint Fuchsia. Considering the color of all the other infusions its definitely the odd ball. The aroma was sour and earthy. It’s like opening a plastic bag of garden soil. Less of the soil aroma, more of the bag. It’s slightly floral in a non hibiscus way, kind of greenhouse-y. I think it smells less like hibiscus than the 0.4 infusion. It also reminds me of the sour beers no one likes, Krieks and stuff –Beers that smell like dry heaving. Flavor wise it’s noticeably sour and the only other thing I could say is that it reminds me of unseasoned boiled pasta noodles, nothing fancy, boiled from a dry state. Unico stuff.

2.4g has a sexy hot pink color, and I don’t think that comes through in the photo above. Lighting, ugh. The aroma is strongly hibiscus. My grandfather had an old chess set where the wooden pieces were kept in a felt lined box attached to the board. The aroma that little felt lined box came rushing back to me when I smelled this tea. The flavor is strongly sour but still not unpleasant to me, it’s very stimulating on the tongue, the sourness seems to come in waves. The sourness is about the same as a lemon but the acidity is much different. Lemons are much more acidic feeling.

3.5g had a color very similar to 2.4… actually slightly brighter and transparent. I think it’s more floral than 2.4 and less ‘felty’ but again — over all it’s very similar. The boiled pasta noodle flavor is ramped up. I think by almost all my metrics this is inferior to 2.4. It has me second guessing myself, I wonder if I put them in the wrong order? I’m confident I didn’t make a mistake though… The sour flavors are more manageable than 2.4g

7g was the very definition of ‘red’ to me. The aroma was very noticeably more concentrated and started to get fruity like choke cherries, purple raisins, goji berries. If this liquid was sweet like candy it would surely be delicious. The flavor was intense. It has a fruity cranberry juice flavor with the weight of grape juice and a crazy dominant sour presence in the mouth.

11g was scarlet red. Even more intense in the aroma, it reminds me of sour plums on the way to being prunes. Boxes of purple raisins I used to get as a kid on Halloween. Artificial strawberry? The flavor is heavy, concentrated, like fruit snacks without sugar but the sugar has been replaced with sour. The ol’ switcharoo. This was my favorite infusion but I think it might be a bit much.

The things we do for tea. My stomach was going crazy with acid reflux after I drank all this hibiscus. What I feel I’ve learned is… Between 1:30 and 1:47 is my ideal Hibiscus tea. I really enjoyed it when the concentration is strong enough to give off fruitiness. If it’s more diluted than 1:47 to 1:94 I think the boiled pasta noodle quality isn’t something people would want — it’s not what I want. In regards to the sour flavors, yes — 1:30~1:47 is intense. I don’t think it’s too intense, but this is the price you have to pay to drink such a healthy liquid.

Josh