Karkade! Who knew?

In the past week or ten days, we have discovered KARKADE. It is, pure and simply, hibiscus tea. I never thought about blossoms of a plant as something to make tea from. We talk about tea LEAVES, not blossoms. I found some hibiscus tea in tea bags several months ago and have not found any since. Last weekend, I found the dried flower itself in bags at the local market. I took it home and tried it out in Mimi's nifty little cups (which she meant for me to use in making green tea, but I have never cared that much for green tea; sorry, Mimi). The cups have an insert that strains the leaves, er, I mean the flowers. :) It was the best darn thing! Reminded me of cranberries and I love those. I started telling people about it and they told me it's called karkade (kar ka day). It's highly prized for its health benefits and delicious flavor. So I started checking it out. It helps lower blood pressure. Research has proven this. It also has loads of antioxidants, one of which is anthocyanin, the ingredient in Montmorency Tart cherries that is being investigated for its possible use in stabilizing blood glucose in diabetics. I read that it helps cool the body (we all know I could use some cooling off!). If you google the stuff, you will find a ton of information. And, besides all that, it's just GOOD. :) I love it. Tonight, we went to Souq Waqif and I bought it in bulk. One bag came from Iran and is said to be the best. The stuff I bought at the supermarket is from Egypt and not bad, I think. The cheapest comes from Sudan. The main difference I can see is that the Iranian karkade is redder, looks fresher and is finer in nature. The Egyptian and Sudanese karkade is darker and maybe a bit more coarse, but then we are talking about a dried product here. We tried the Iranian karkade tonight and it does taste a bit smoother than the other. I am going to make up a big pot tomorrow (I also put it in the frig and drink it cold....it's better than sun tea at home, no kidding!).

In any case, I will bring some home with me, and if you would like some to try, you have to tell me so I know how much to get. :)

Hurray for KARKADE!

For those of you curious about what's going on with my health in a little more depth, you can check out my new blog at:

http://4wardclimb.blogspot.com/

I am going to cure myself of this damn sarcoidosis and if any of you have any inflammatory type illnesses, or what a doctor has told you is an autoimmune disorder, you might want to research the Marshall Protocol. I have links on my new blog if you are interested and you are welcome to ask me anything about it!

Until next week!