Season of Sorrel
For those of us exiled in the cold countries, the month of January marked the end of the holiday season and silenced all excuses for making sorrel punch. Not so in the Caribbean, where the gorgeous red drink also accompanies the festivities in preparation for the long Carnival season, its music, costumes, and foods stretching all the way From Christmas to Ash Wednesday and sometimes beyond.
Indeed brewing sorrel (Hibiscus sabdariffa] is synonymous with historical celebrations. Only the wealthy had the means to drink alcohol excessively. In the seventeenth century, Richard Ligon described the drinks of the enslaved Africans in Jamaica, noting that they had only “water or Mobbie for drink.” This “mobbie” was an indigenous Carib fermented drink made from sweet potatoes. The later “mauby” was quite different: a local drink made from the bark of a tree and sweetened. Brewers offset its bitter taste by adding huge amounts of sugar.
Sorrel is part of this tradition. On every island similar drinks were brewed from various berries, fruits, and flowers, like the hibiscus. In one African-Jamaican folktale, Anancy the trickster Spider is credited with inventing the brewing of sorrel drink from the dried flowers. When someone tastes it too soon before it is completely brewed, Anancy sings the recipe: “It want some sugar/A little piece a ginger/A little cinnamon/And then you stir so/And then you stir so.”
Sorrel is easy to make. Boil a cinnamon stick, a finger of ginger (peeled and diced), about 6 whole cloves, and a pinch of ground allspice with 8 cups of water. Add one cup of the dried sorrel flowers (calyx) to the boiling water and briefly simmer for about two or three minutes. You should see the vivid red color almost immediately. Remove the pot from the fire. Cover and steep overnight. Strain the pure liquid to remove ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and flowers. Stir in the sugar to taste. Some home recipes call for as much as two cups of white sugar. I initially add about ¾ cup of super refined sugar and then let guests add more if they desire a sweeter drink. Serve with a slice of lime or orange over ice. It’s sorrel season wherever you are…sing while you stir!
