Last week my mother came back from a holiday in Madeira. Knowing that I am a little bit of a hippy at heart (well, the kind of hippy that likes central heating, hot baths, and freshly laundered sheets), she always brings back a small gift in the form of unusual teas or interesting dried fruit from her travels, and on this occasion that took the form of dried hibiscus flowers.

Probably one of the prettiest things that you could ever receive in a plastic bag, the hibiscus flowers (in case you haven’t seen them) are bright pink – always a good start. The recommendation from the seller had been to either eat the flowers whole or to put them in hot water to create an infusion.

I tried both but my preference was for the infusion, which happily resulted in a sweet, fragrant tea (the sweetness was really on account of the fact that the drying process had also involved them being covered in sugar).

As is the nature of receiving anything new with the potential for a health benefit, I immediately took to Google to see what, if anything, it could throw up.

Now, it’s not that you should believe everything you see online, but Dr. Diane McKay has done some research and she reckons that hibiscus tea can reduce blood pressure, and can also help manage diabetes.

As an antioxidant it does its little bit in helping to protect against heart disease, arthritis, cancer, PCOS, Alzheimer’s and IBS, amongst a catalogue of other inflammatory ailments, which is always nice to know.

One Dr. Mercola has also said that there’s some evidence to show that hibiscus extract can also help reduce obesity and abdominal fat, and regulate the metabolism.

It’s also said that Egyptian pharaohs drank hibiscus tea to help maintain a normal body temperature and stay cool in the heat… frankly that’s not an issue that we have all that often in the UK, and it seems to be the same thing my Nan used to say about a normal cuppa, but I will keep it in mind the next time I’m suffering from hot flushes.

For me however it always boils down to one key point – did I like it? The answer is a resounding yes. It’s fresh, it’s light, it’s fragrant and it’s pink. I did prefer the flowers in tea rather than on their own, and they made for a cup of tea that felt like a little ritual in the middle of the day – which meant 10 minutes of relaxation for the grand effort of boiling the kettle.

That, for me, was the best health benefit of all.