“Health Benefits of Chamomile Tea.” Topnaturalremedies.net. eXceda, 20 May 2016. Web.30 May 2016.
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Poisonous Tea
Also called karkadeh in Arabic and served throughout North Africa, especially in Egypt, hot hibiscus tea soothes the throat and has a strong, vibrant taste, nothing like the diluted herbal teas you might’ve only tried until now.
Hibiscus tea is rich with minerals and vitamin C, and served hot it loses a bit of its characteristic and explosive sour. Hot Hibiscus Tea 1 cup dried red hibiscus flowers 1 liter of filtered water 1. Boil the water. 2. Rinse the hibiscus flowers in filtered water, if they’re dusty. 3. Lay the leaves in the bottom of a tea kettle or a thermos. 4. When the water boils, remove it from the heat and gently pour the water over the hibiscus flowers. 5. Let them steep for 7 to 10 minutes, then serve with honey. |
Relation to Purple Hibiscus
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Tea was an integral part of Kambili's culture, both in the Catholic and traditional setting. Kambili and Jaja always shared sips from their Papa's tea as a sign of bonding and family. Aunt Ifeoma and Kambili's cousins did the same, sharing tea every night in order to gain tighter family relationships. No matter the religion, sharing tea was a symbol of family and unity.
However, towards the end of the novel, tea holds an entirely different meaning. It holds the meaning of change. Considering that this recipe was made using red hibiscus, it holds even greater importance to the book titled Purple Hibiscus. Towards the end of the novel, Mama chose tea as a method of poisoning her husband and ridding her family of abuse and cruelty. Tea not only unified a once coherent family, it seemed to also dissolve and break it apart as well. |
Placement
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This artifact was place towards the end of the site to represent Mama's final actions against her husband. Although tea seemed to play a major part in the beginning as mentioned above, it played an even larger role in changing the family when Mama finally poisoned her husband's tea and killing him over a long period of time.
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