jamaica juice

At the market last saturday I bought some dried jamaica (pronounced ha-my-ka) flowers to make juice from.  The juice is really popular in Mexico, but luckily we can get flowers here too.

you can boil the flowers and then strain the water, but I had some cheesecloth and made a little bundle.

When the water boils and is a nice deep red color you add a bit of sugar (it doesn't take that much) and done!

You know when you were little and wanted the "red" popsicle, which really had no specific fruit flavor, just "red?"  That's the best description I have for what this juice tastes like.  It's really refreshing when it's cold, a nice change from water or lime juice.  I'm pretty sure you can get jamaica tea bags in the states if anyone wants to try it.....