Hibiscus tea is a herbal tea made as an infusion from crimson or deep magenta-colored calyces (sepals) of the roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) flower. It is consumed both hot and cold and has a tart, cranberry-like flavor.

Consumption: Africa

The roselle hibiscus used to make the tea likely originated in Africa.[1] In Africa, hibiscus tea is commonly sold in markets and the dried flowers can be found throughout West and East Africa. Variations on the drink are popular in West Africa and parts of Central Africa. In Senegal, bissap is known as the “national drink of Senegal”. Hibiscus tea is often flavored with mint or ginger in West Africa. In Ghana it is known as “sobolo”, and “zobo” in Nigeria.

Karkadé (Arabic: كَركَديه karkadīh pronounced [kɑrkæˈdiːh]) is served hot or chilled with ice. It is consumed in some parts of North Africa, especially in Egypt and Sudan

Consumption: Americas

Agua de flor de Jamaica, also called agua de Jamaica and rosa de Jamaica, is popular in Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America and the Caribbean. It is one of several common aguas frescas, which are inexpensive beverages typically made from fresh juices or extracts. Jamaica and other aguas frescas are commonly found in taquerias or other Mexican restaurants. It is usually prepared by steeping the calyces in boiling water, straining the mixture, pressing the calyces (to squeeze all the juice out), adding sugar, and stirring. It is served chilled, and in Jamaica, this drink is a tradition at Christmas, served with fruitcake or sweet potato pudding

In Panama, both the flowers and the drink are called saril (a derivative of the English word sorrel). It is prepared by picking and boiling the calyces with chopped ginger, sugar, clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg. It is traditionally drunk around Christmas and Chinese New Year. This diverges from Mexico and Central America and is much more in line with the Caribbean, due to the strong West Indian influence in Panamanian culture; especially in Panama City and most of Panama’s Caribbean coast.

In the English-speaking Caribbean, the drink, called sorrel, is made from the calyces, and it is considered an integral part of Christmas celebrations. In American soul food cuisine, hibiscus tea is included in a category of “red drinks” associated with West Africa.

Consumption: Southeast Asia

In Thailand, most commonly, roselle is prepared as a cold beverage, heavily sweetened and poured over ice, similar to sweetened fruit juices. Plastic bags filled with ice and sweetened ‘grajeab’ can be found outside most schools and in local markets. It is less commonly made into a wine.

Reviews have concluded that hibiscus tea consumption appears to modestly lower blood pressure in people with high blood pressure. Hibiscus tea was generally well tolerated, and did not adversely affect liver or kidney function at lower doses, but may be hepatotoxic at high doses.

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Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

Aid:

Theory:

  • Xiǎohóngshū is currently the top downloaded app in the US App Store. It’s a tiktok clone that unlike TikTok is mostly active in China, with a mostly Chinese userbase.

    Banning TikTok for being too Chinese so millions of Americans go “Fine, I’ll go to the actual Chinese app where all the Chinese people are and I can’t even read half the interface”

    It’s so funny. Like, I can’t imagine that backfiring in a more ironic way. In retrospect, the US government should’ve loved TikTok for being kind enough to keep Chinese users separated on Douyin. Despite their protestations, TikTok was incredibly American. Now we’ll be exposed to the true power of Chinese Posters.

    Also just choosing completely unforced to end the century of American media hegemony. Now Americans will actually be exposed to Chinese media and comedy and just Chinese people in general. Americans with no understanding of Chinese at all are moving to an app where parts of the interface and most content are in Chinese and are putting Chinese captions on their videos.

    I never could’ve predicted the outcome of the tiktok ban being “Americans accept the place of English as a secondary language in a Chinese dominated world.” Unironically if this holds in a year or two we’ll start hearing Chinese words added into people’s vernacular. TikTok was a huge cultural force, arguably the dominant one in the US right now. If Xiǎohóngshū actually takes its place that’s gonna be a really interesting shift.

  • anarchoilluminati [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    I was at the grocery store yesterday and saw this interaction with a probably 4 year old White girl and her White mom. The girl was doing something so her parents put her inside the shopping cart to contain her. She wasn’t happy about this, so the little girl took off her shoe in protest and threw it out of the cart at nothing in particular and it just landed in the aisle.

    Mom: Vivian, YOU are. going. to have consequences!

    Daughter: NOOO! I don’t want consequences!

  • CrispyFern [fae/faer, any]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    Yesterday thelastaxolotl came to my house. He brought a cake, gifted it to me and thanked me for commenting in the megathread, he said he is very happy that I’m commenting. He said he was traveling all over the world to ask real hexbears (like me!!!) what they think.

    He asked me if I wanted to give him any thoughts on what I think should be added to the threads. I said “Liberalism”. His face suddenly changed and then he left.

    “Hehe, he probably remembered something important, that’s why he left so quick” - that’s what I thought that moment. I waited till evening for my parents to come home and eat the cake together. But little did I know, that it actually was a bomb.

    The moment we realised it I got a message saying, that this bomb is connected to my account. That if I miss even 1 day of commenting in the megathread it will explode. Also it said: “Fuck you and your liberalism”

    Please, y’xll, don’t be liberals, worst mistake of my life. peter-running

  • Inui [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    8 days ago

    Workplace rejected our requests to instate a salary/career ladder to allow for more upward mobility for our positions. As soon as we got that news, one of the people on our team brought up privately that they’ve secretly been communicating with other unions in our area/field and is already gathering personal emails of people interested in organizing/supporting this.

    It’s happening sicko-crowd

  • DeathToBritain [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    seen some comment threads on redbook with likes well into the thousands of Americans discovering social credit is made up and China does not have some magic government score for each citizen. its jover for American media hegemony

  • mar_k [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    8 days ago

    i saw the redditor ass tiananmen square copypasta with a thousand likes on tiktok, and my response got taken down 🙃

    i specifically edited “massacre” and “dead” out of it (in both english and chinese) so it WOULDN’T get flagged. glad we’re moving to an actual chinese app and not an amerikkkan run and controlled offshot

  • Moss [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    Does it mean anything that one of the biggest social media websites is being banned in America explicitly because it’s owned by a foreign country and used to spread propaganda that the state can’t control. And no one is doing anything about it. Like I don’t care about TikTok specifically, I don’t have it, but it seems like everyone on TikTok, even people who make a living posting there, are just going "aw damn :( ". Like I’m sure there’s a petition a lot of people have signed, but no one is taking any kind of political action about this.

    Idk I’m a bit high I just think it’s weird that Americans don’t really care about one of their sources of media is being banned

    • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      9 days ago

      The broader reality here is that half of Americans believe Trump is literally Hitler yet have done absolutely nothing about him except vote.

      • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        9 days ago

        Pondering how all the philosophical underpinnings of the third reich (phrenology, xenophobia, genocide denial, marriage of government and corporations, etc.) inform America and it’s politicians while sitting at continental breakfast in a hotel in the middle of nowhere during a work trip.

    • quarrk [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      9 days ago

      Americans are trained to only care when something actually happens because every single week there’s a new looming, existential threat that ends up fizzling out before it’s implemented.

      If and when TikTok is banned, there will be more of a reaction. For now it’s just politicians doing their normal fearmongering, although it does look likely to go through.