The Hibiscus Coconut Cocktail: A Valentine's Day Cocktail Without Alcohol
As Valentine's Day approaches, we suggest you discover an easy and amazing recipe to prepare a thirst-quenching, gourmet and alcohol-free cocktail. If the one you love never drinks alcohol, surprise him or her with this hibiscus coconut cocktail in a beautiful passion red color!
Ingredients
Here are the ingredients needed to make a hibiscus coconut cocktail for 2 people:
50 cl of mineral or filtered water
1 packet of coconut water powder
1 heaping tablespoon of dried hibiscus flowers
4 teaspoons of agave syrup
frozen strawberries
To note: in this cocktail, adding frozen strawberries to the glasses is optional. But I find that it provides the perfect finishing touch to make a fresh, fruity nolo Valentine's Day cocktail with an original visual.
Preparation of the coconut water
To prepare this hibiscus-coconut cocktail, I wanted to test a packet of powder used to prepare reconstituted coconut water. You can find this type of sachet in organic stores, in the drinks section, right next to the coconut water in brick.
This powder is a good stopgap solution if you can't find coconut water in the supermarket. Simply dilute the powder in mineral or filtered water to get 500 ml of reconstituted coconut water.
After this first try, however, I have to admit that the resulting coconut water is not as tasty as the one you can buy in bricks under the market leader brand.
For the preparation of this Valentine's Day cocktail without alcohol, I recommend you to use coconut water in brick if you can find it or, failing that, to dilute a sachet in 500 ml of water, as on the picture below. To make measuring and mixing the ingredients easier, I used the glass of my smoothie blender.
Addition of hibiscus flowers
This hibiscus coconut cocktail owes its beautiful bright red color to the hibiscus flower. This drink is very simple to prepare but you need to start the day before as the flowers need to infuse overnight.
Dried hibiscus flowers can be found quite easily online and in herbalist shops as these edible flowers are reputed for their medicinal properties, against blood pressure in particular.
The hibiscus flower is also used to prepare a popular drink around the world and especially in Africa, the bissap. It should be noted, however, that bissap is an infusion that is prepared with boiling water, while in this cocktail, I macerated the hibiscus flowers cold.
The next step in the recipe is to add the dried hibiscus flowers directly into the coconut water and let it steep.
Maceration of the flowers
Let the coconut water and hibiscus flower mixture steep overnight in the refrigerator. The next day, your hibiscus coconut cocktail should have turned a beautiful bright red color.
This coloring effect is due to the presence of anthocyanins in the flower, natural pigments from the polyphenol family.
Hibiscus-based drinks like this cocktail or bissap would therefore have an antioxidant action against free radicals and premature aging of cells.
Finishing the cocktail
Once the flowers have infused well, strain the hibiscus coconut cocktail into a carafe.
Add the agave syrup to sweeten and stir well. I found the addition of a sweetener necessary because hibiscus flowers have a tart berry taste and my reconstituted coconut water was not very sweet.
If you find that your coconut water is quite sweet, it may not be necessary to add sweetener. Therefore, feel free to taste and adapt the recipe to your taste!
Tasting advice
When serving your non-alcoholic Valentine's Day cocktail, put a frozen strawberry or two in the bottom of each glass as ice cubes.
Enjoy the hibiscus coconut cocktail chilled. You can even eat the strawberries that have thawed in the meantime.
