If you have gone looking for dried hibiscus in Australia you have probably found three kinds of thing, and they are not the same product.
The three places people find it
The tea aisle
Hibiscus in a teabag, usually blended with rosehip or berry flavouring. It is cut fine, sometimes near powder, and it is designed to give you colour in three minutes. It will make a red cup. It will not make karkade.
The African, Middle Eastern and Caribbean grocers
This is where the real thing is, and it is usually the best value in the country. Look for whole calyces in a clear bag. It goes by different names depending on who runs the shop. Karkade or karkadeh in Sudanese and Egyptian shops, bissap in West African, sorrel in Caribbean, flor de jamaica in Latin American. Same flower.
Online
Where it gets uneven. Some of it is excellent. A lot of it is bulk import sold on colour alone, with no origin and no sifting.
What actually separates a good bag from a cheap one
- Whole calyces, not cut. You want to see recognisable shapes, not flakes. Cut hibiscus gives up its colour fast and its flavour never arrives.
- Sifted. Pick a bag up and look at the bottom of it. Stalk, seed, split calyx and dust all collect there. That is weight you paid for that goes in the bin, and dust is what makes a jug taste dry and papery.
- Deep colour, not black. Good dried hibiscus is a dark wine red. Very dark to black usually means it was dried too hot or has been sitting a long time.
- An origin on the bag. Sudan, Egypt, Nigeria and Thailand all grow it and they taste different. A bag that will not say where it came from is telling you something.
- A date. It keeps for a couple of years sealed and dry, but it does fade. Ours carries a production and best before date.
Why the cheap bag is cheap
Sifting costs yield. Every stalk and split calyx you pull out is weight you no longer sell. Doing it by hand costs time on top of that. A supplier who skips both steps can undercut anyone, and the bag looks the same in a photograph.
You find out when you make it. Unsifted karkade comes out cloudy, tastes flat and papery behind the sourness, and leaves a layer of grit in the jug.
How much you need
We use 100g to a litre. That is a lot of flower and we say so on purpose, because that is where the depth comes from.
What comes out of that is a base, not the drink. Let it down with cold water until it tastes right to you, and run the calyces a second time. That is how a kilo comes out around 66 litres of drink.
It still moves a bit, because karkade is a crop. Some seasons come in deep and heavy, some lighter. Start at 100g a litre, taste it, and after the first batch you will not think about it again.
What we sell
Whole dried calyces, product of Sudan, sifted by hand and packed in Western Sydney. One ingredient, nothing added.
- 300g, $21, about 20 litres of drink
- 600g, $39, about 40 litres
- 1.2kg, $72, about 79 litres, for the family that drinks it every day
Free shipping anywhere in Australia over $100. Or pick it up free from Westmead. Dried karkade hibiscus.
Eighty glasses out of a $21 bag is about 26c a glass, against $4.50 for a bottle. If you drink it regularly, the bag is the answer.
Then what
Make it cold and slow, the Sudanese way. Here is the method, and if you are wondering, there is no caffeine in it.