Through the porthole - Orange Hibiscus tea

Here is this week's infusion, made using my porthole.

In it is a Orange Hibiscus tea.  I used hibiscus flowers, rose hips, lemongrass, dried oranges, mint, rose petals and three whole stevia leaves.

Its a lovely combination and the whole stevia leaves didn't make it taste really sweet. I actually only put them in as I wanted a large green leaf so looked on my herb patch - and there was my stevia!

The tea is a lovely peachy color - a good blend of the red from the hibiscus and the orange.

I set it on the table yesterday ready for when a class sat to ate their cooking, and they were most intrigued by it and thought how pretty it looked with the sun shining on it.

Any suggestions of what I should try next to infuse in it next week?

Through the Porthole

I got a new "toy" this week.  A porthole.

Its an infusing "vessel" - to be used for cocktails, oils, vinegars, soft drinks, dressing, or purely decorative.  I heard about them on kickstarter and thought it looked stunning.  I'd forgotten about it actually, until  mine arrived, out of the blue, this week.

So I tried it for the first time today - ready for some guests coming around this evening.

Tonight "through the porthole", is an elderflower and elderberry concoction.  I'm a big fan of elderflower and so some dried flowers are in there, a long with some elderflower syrup.  Then, as I planted an elder bush this year, and had forgotten to check for berries, I went to search and found some sun-dried berries, waiting to be picked!

I'd checked on the plant at elderflower time and they had a few bunches of flowers but as it was only a new and small plant, I didn't want to deprive it of its first harvest.  But once they had turned to berries, and dried -  I thought it was OK.

As soon as I added liquid, they started giving off a lovely red color.

I had seen a star fruit in Whole Foods last week too - and it had been ages since I had one, so it went to a good use in the porthole.

So it'll be an alternative for any of us not drinking this evening.  A little elder porthole with some sparkling water.

Doesn't it look beautiful?  What would you put in a porthole? I have lots of ideas.  Have you ever seen one before?