SC - Unusual beverage

[Stefan li Rous]

Maggie MacD. answered my questions about Jamaica flowers with:
> Jamaica is a very refreshing cold drink. It is based on a very deep red 
> hibiscus blossom (which is obviously dried).
> 
> I've also seen directions call for a little fresh lime juice to be added.
> It's good, VERY good.  I understand that the blossoms are used in many 
> places besides the Americas (an acquaintance of mine from Samoa said that 
> they cook with them there also).

A big thank you to everyone who answered my inquiry on this. Your
encouragement was such that after finishing the first digest I just
had to go make some of this. I made a quarter batch of the stuff. I
sweetened it with Splenda artifical sweetener and added ice cubes since
I didn't want to wait for it to cool down in the refrigerator. It is
quite good. I will have to try it with lime juice and some of the other
things mentioned later. I may have finally found a near-period beverage
for SCA events. While it may not be period, it is a lot closer than my
diet colas. There is just too much sugar or starches in most of the
period drinks as I'm a Type I diabetic.

Another item I found at the oriental groceries was Barley tea. I think
from previous discussions here there may have been something pretty close
to this in period Europe. It's only ingredient is roasted barley. I'm
not as sure that I will like it as the fruitier Jamaica tea but we'll
see. About the only thing in English (or alphabetic characters at all) is
the package title, the wieght and a stick-on label with the nutrition
info. It has lots of Chinese/Japanese? characters. But the picture shows 
a packet being poured into a tea pot. So I guess I'll try that and see 
how it goes.
- -- 
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****