Aqua de Jamaica Hibiscus Recipe for Dia de los Muertos

This Agua de Jamaica or Hibiscus tea is delicious and it is good for your blood pressure too! The recipe is super simple and on my first go, I got a seal of approval from Delilah’s classmates. If you follow along on my journey then you probably know that my girls are both in the Spanish Language Immersion program at school. So they are learning both English and Spanish at the same time. I signed up to bring this drink for the class Dia de los Muertos celebration. I packaged the drink to carry to school in cleaned out 2-liter bottles. Of course, I added some decorations. The artwork is courtesy of my friend, Kathy of Crafty Chica. The recipe is from Simply. I doubled the recipe and added oranges. Double was enough for 30 students and both 2-liters.

The bright red color comes from the Hibiscus petals. They have a beautiful rich color and taste. Look for them online or in the Hispanic section of your grocery store. Also – The drink is pronounced hah-MY-kah.

NOTE: I doubled the Aqua de Jamaica recipe. Adapted from Simply.

2 Quarts Water
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Dried Hibiscus Flowers
1 Cinnamon Stick
3 Slices Ginger
2 Small Oranges

1 Boil water with sugar: Put 4 cups of the water and the sugar in a medium saucepan. Add cinnamon, oranges and ginger slices. Heat until boiling and the sugar has dissolved.

2 Steep with dried hibiscus flowers: Remove from heat. Stir in the dried hibiscus flowers. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes.

3 Strain: Strain into a pitcher and discard the used hibiscus flowers, ginger, cinnamon, and oranges.

(At this point you can store ahead the concentrate, chilled, until ready to make the drink.)

4 Add water: Add remaining 4 cups of water to the concentrate, and chill.

The kids LOVED the drink…. we had lots of little ones who wanted seconds. I made the cups for the Delilah’s Mexico’s Independence Day Celebration.

I funneled the Agua de Jamaica into cleaned out 2-liter bottles. I used this style bottle because it was easy to carry to school and easy to pour from. I created a label for the 2-Liter bottles. I wanted to add a little pop to the containers. My friend Kathy from Craftychica.com made the calavera artwork.