Rosella tea

Apr 12, 2013by Farmer Liz

A while ago I had a lovely tea with ginger and rosella. It got me thinking maybe I should try to grow some rosellas myself, so this season when I was offered some seed (thanks African Aussie!) I planted some and ended up with four in big pots. I kept them in pots because I was a little unsure what to expect. I didn't know how big they would get and where they would prefer to grow. I find keeping unknown plants in pots the first year helps me if I need to move them around to find the best spot for them. Next year I'll probably plant them out in the garden instead.

Rosella dried for tea

I am still waiting for mine to flower, even though I planted them in September, but a friend of mine had excess fruit from her plants and gave me a bag of them. I decided to dry most of them for tea, and kept a few to add to a fermented drink.

the rosella flowers? I don't even know what to call them!

the calices peeled from the rosella seeds

Rosella is a bit of a strange fruit, as you don't really use a fruit as such, you actually remove the calyx, which is the bit outside the petals which grows up around the seed pod. I had never seen them before, so this was quite a novelty. They very are easy to peel, then I just washed them and spread them out in the dehydrator on some cheese cloth (so they didn't fall through the mesh).

The green bit is the seed pod

The calices themselves taste very sour, but that is a lovely tang to add to jam, cordial, tea etc. Apparently you can also use them for pickles. I decided to try making a fermented beverage and substituted them for ginger in my ginger ale recipe, the result was delicious.

The calices spread out in the dehydrator

and after drying for about 12 hours

rosella, mixed with ginger, lemon peel and lemon grass

my tea cupboard, in case you were wondering where I keep all this tea!

the rosella ferment, I thought it would be more pink,
it tastes nice though

Do you make rosella tea? OR anything else from rosella?

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