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"Hibiscus has gained buzz recently for its healthful reputation and potential medicinal properties, but chefs long have prized the flower’s full flavor, deep red color and its heritage as an ingredient used around the globe," begins a report in Nation's Restaurant News.
The various uses of the exotic flower range from using it as a poultry seasoning, the base for a granité, and an infusion in all sorts of cocktails.
Upstate New Yorkers looking for a chance to sample a hibiscus drink can do so if they live near one of The Melting Pot restaurants.
There are Melting Pot restaurants in the Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, the Walden Galleria in Buffalo, White Plains and Poughkeepsie. The chain has a site locater available online.
For special events such as Valentine's Day and New Year’s Day, the fondue-specialty chain serves a Champagne-based cocktail with a whole candied hibiscus at the bottom of the glass.
As another example, Silk Road restaurant at the Vdara, which is scheduled to open next month at CityCenter in Las Vegas, plans to highlight a hibiscus cocktail named The Kiss of Pear-suasion, created by chef Martin Heierling. He places a candied hibiscus flower into a chilled flute, adds some sugar syrup that the flowers are packed in, as well as pear vodka, elderflower liqueur and Champagne, gently stir it and garnish with a lemon peel.
You can read more about the growing uses of hibiscus in food and drink by going here.
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