Rosehip Tea

Rosehip tea is a herbal tisane made not from a tea plant at all but from the fruit of the rose — the swollen, red-orange "hips" that form on the bush after the petals fall. Dried and broken open, the hips are steeped in hot water to give a rosy amber-to-crimson infusion that smells of stewed apple, hedgerow berries and a whisper of rose, and tastes brightly tart and fruity, closer to a fruit cordial than to leaf tea. It is naturally caffeine-free, famously rich in vitamin C, and is one of the classic hedgerow drinks of Europe; it is very often blended with hibiscus, whose deep magenta colour and sharp sourness reinforce rosehip's own fruity acidity.