The sight of Sorrel signals Christmas is in the air.

Blog written by Patricia Bissessar
Many would agree that nothing tastes better than a cold glass of home made sorrel . Some folks also fancy the Shandy Sorrel drink.
Growing up as a child of the 60s it was a Bissessaringh Tradition on Christmas Eve to prepare the traditional Trini Christmas Drinks. The only drinks bought were two cases of solo soft drinks in the wooden crate and a few bottles of peardrax. My parents loved their homemade ginger beer, sorrel which we picked from the yard to prepare the drink and Ponche de Crème. I remembered one year my mother experimenting with making pommerac wine , but although it was pleasant tasting but given the fact nobody drank alcoholic beverages in my home my father gave the two bottles of local pommerac wine to one of his friends. Although both parents are no longer in the land of the living my sister Annmarie and my sister in law Sangeeta continues the family traditions started so many years ago.
Sorrel has always been an integral part of Caribbean food and culture, especially during the festive Christmas season. Made from the dried petals of the sorrel flower, sorrel makes a beautiful deep-red, delicious fruity-fragrant floral tea or infusion. Like many popular plants grown in the Caribbean region, sorrel has its origins in West Africa. It is also known as Roselle, or less widely recognized, by its scientific name ‘Hibiscus sabdariffa’.
My task is to pick and remove the seeds from the sorrel for boiling while my sister in law responsibility is to prepare the delicious tasty sorrel drink. The juice is drawn by steeping the outer skin (sepals) of the fresh or dried red fruit in hot water and produces a rich, red liquid Angelo’s mom and my sister also makes sorrel jam which goes just right with baked turkey .
The good ole traditional non-alcoholic, strongly flavoured Trini Ginger beer was my mother’s favourite Christmas Drink. Ginger Beer was first created in Yorkshire, England in the 1700s during the colonial spice trade. It is made by mixing the brew of boiled ginger with sugar and spices such as cinnamon and clove. The mixture is placed in glass bottles and left to ferment for a day or two .Most families in Trinidad, as well as the rest of the Caribbean, make their own ginger beer at home from fresh ginger rhizomes.
It simply isn’t Christmas without these traditional festive drinks. So this year, why not add them into your own Christmas Tradition. Look out for next post: Trinidad Christmas foods!
In these photos taken a few years ago Carmen , Angelo's mom ( now deceased) is seen picking the sorrel fruits from her garden . She even experimented with making sorrel jam.
Other than normal sorrel drink does anyone use the sorrel fruit to make anything else? (Source: Angelo Bissessarsingh's Virtual Museum of Trinidad and Tobago, Dec 2, 2023)

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