Many moons ago, I lived in SoCal in a house with too many roommates. We were all broke, all the time. One day I saw one of the roomies with his usual giant pot on the stove boiling water. He pulled out a baggie and reached in to grab a handful of weird crumbly stuff. No, it wasn’t weed, it was jamaica tea (pronounced: ha-mike-uh).
So I’m like “what weird stuff are you making today, Mondo?” and he explained that it was made of dried flowers and you just need a handful to make a huge pot of this red tea. It was like a really dank Kool-Aid. He told me it was super cheap and I was hooked.
Jamaica is loaded with antioxidants. According to Michael Gregor, M.D. it “may be the highest antioxidant beverage in the world,” and it costs pennies to make. It’s a bit of a diuretic, if you’re into that kinda thing. It’s also what puts the zing in your red zinger tea. The dried leaves keep pretty much forever, so I always keep a baggie in the cupboard.
#SpoonTip: Whole Food sells the same stuff for way more. Do yourself a favor and find your local carneceria and support a small business. If you’re paying $20/lb you’re gettting ripped off.
I like it over ice with a ton of sugar and some lemon, but up north you’re welcome to have it hot, and when the sun goes down you can also add a bit of rum to keep the party going. Go ahead, experiment. Make a sangria with it.
If you can boil water you can probably handle this recipe:
Jamaica Tea
Ingredients
Instructions
Get your Jamaica flowers.
Get a big pot of water boiling.
Throw in a handful of the jamaica and boil for about 15 minutes, until the water turns deep red.
Strain.
Dump in your sweetener of choice. Serve it however you like, hot, cold, over ice, with rum or brandy. It should stay good for about a week or so.