My cultural item is sorrel. Sorrel is very important to me because not only is it part of my ancestry, but it is also very tasty! There are different forms of sorrel, dried sorrel, the plant sorrel, the drink. Today I’ll be telling you about the drink. At first it has a tart, sour taste but when you add sugar, it becomes sweet, with just a hint of tart,  and flavors burst inside your mouth.
When I was younger, my grandfather used to make sorrel a lot, and it was so tasty! I recently made sorrel, and it took a long time, but it was well worth it! 
So, what is sorrel exactly? Sorrel starts out as a green plant. Sorrel is a Caribbean name for hibiscus flowers, and the drink is made up of the dried hibiscus flowers. The green part is an herb and it tastes like a lemon and is tart, similarly to the flowers. 
Sorrel starts growing in the spring, and as the seasons progress, it gets more bitter. The drink itself is tangy at first but has a sweet aftertaste. 
Sorrel is a small edible green plant, and it’s also part of the polygonaceae family (I know hard to pronounce but it’s poll-ee-gun-AY-see-ee) which might have some names you recognize including Buckwheat and Rhubarb. This family is known as the ‘flowering plant’ family.    
Sorrel is a drink that people in the Caribbean usually make during Christmas or occasionally, for a little treat.                                                                                         

Sorrel RecipeIngredients-2 cups dried sorrel, (roselle/hibiscus sabdariffa) -10 cups water 3- cinnamon sticks -2 star anise, whole-2 pieces orange peel, fresh (2-3 inches) -2 tsp white sugar, or more (to taste)

– JL

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant