BHA & BHT Free Turmeric-Cinnamon Strawberry Hibiscus Cooler
This vibrant drink is a feast for the eyes before it even hits your lips — a deep ruby-red blend of tart hibiscus, sweet strawberries, warm spice, and a bright hit of lemon that tastes like summer in a glass. Avoiding BHA and BHT can be trickier than it sounds, since those synthetic preservatives sneak into everything from packaged drink mixes to flavored syrups, but this cooler is built entirely from whole, fresh ingredients with nothing processed in sight. Dried hibiscus flowers, ground turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger are simmered together to create a deeply fragrant base, sweetened simply with honey and nothing else. Fresh strawberries get blended right into that chilled hibiscus liquid, so the color and flavor are completely natural — no dyes, no stabilizers, no shortcuts. The layered spice from the turmeric and cinnamon gives it a warmth that balances the tartness of the hibiscus and lemon in a way that feels genuinely sophisticated. Serve it over ice with a sprig of mint and a lemon slice and it looks like something from a fancy café, but you made it in your own kitchen with total control over every ingredient.
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Learn more →Ingredients
4 servings
For the hibiscus base
- 3 cups water
- ½ cup dried hibiscus flowers
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- 2 tbsp honey
For the cooler
- 2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup ice cubes
For serving
- fresh mint sprigs (optional)
- lemon slices (optional)
Instructions
- 1
Combine the water, dried hibiscus flowers, ground turmeric, ground cinnamon, and ground ginger in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes, until the liquid is deep ruby-red and fragrant.
- 2
Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the honey until fully dissolved. Let the mixture steep for 10 minutes, then strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a pitcher, pressing the hibiscus flowers to extract all the liquid. Discard the solids.
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