Sorrel, it's not Christmas without it

Do you know sorrel? Have you ever heard of it? Sorrel has been a part of Christmas in Trinidad since, forever! It is a delicious drink made from a fruit grown on trees, the tree is a relative of the hibiscus and while in bloom the flower looks very much like the hibiscus. It is boiled with a little fresh ginger, cinnamon sticks and a few cloves and makes a delicious drink! It takes a lot of sugar so, like everything at Christmas time it is quite fattening!

No Christmas morning is the same without home made bread, ham and a drink of sorrel, if you don't have sorrel at Christmas, go ahead and call it Easter!

Quite by accident, maybe a neighbor threw a seed into my yard, a tree started to grow, I was so elated!

This is the flower that falls off and the petal is what we make the drink with. Dosent it look somewhat like hibiscus?


This is the lone sorrel tree in my yard, it is pretty laden.

Here is a close-up of the fully grown sorrel, I stood in the midday sun and picked them all!

The result of my labor, a nice sized bowl of sorrel! Sorrel usually sells for approx 1 us dollar per pound, however on Christmas eve which is when I bought i paid twice that amount, I got approx 2 1/2 lbs off my tree.

Picking sorrel is hard work, they dont come off the tree that easily, I had to use a scissors! Did I mention it was the mid day sun?

I found this video of someone picking sorrel, pretty much the way we do it in Trinidad, Jamaica seems to lay claim to sorrel being in the Caribbean, but I dont know about that! A few sites call it 'Jamaican sorrel' ha! It's a Trini thing I tell you!