Sorrel Drink
Trinidadian Christmas in a glass: dried sorrel steeped with ginger, clove and orange peel, sweetened and usually spiked with rum.
Photograph credit: Sparkling Hibiscus Iced Tea with Raspberry & Tarragon - GAIL's 2025-07-14 by Andy Li · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Sorrel Drink: Step by Step
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Rinse the sorrel in cold water.
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Boil the water with the ginger, cloves, cinnamon, orange peel and bay for 10 minutes.
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Take the pan off the heat, add the sorrel, cover and leave to cool to room temperature.
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Refrigerate the whole pot, spices and all, for at least 12 hours and up to 24.
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Strain through a fine sieve, pressing gently.
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Stir in the sugar until dissolved, tasting as you go — it should be sharp rather than sweet.
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Add the rum, if using, and bottle.
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Serve very cold over ice.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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What Can Go Wrong
- The overnight cold steep is what separates this from a hot hibiscus tea. Do not shortcut it.
- Be generous with the ginger. It should have a proper burn at the back of the throat.
- Sweeten last, after chilling. Cold hides sugar and it is easy to overshoot when warm.
Swaps and Variations
- If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.
Good to Know About Sorrel Drink
Sorrel and jamaica are the same hibiscus calyx, but the Caribbean treatment is a different drink entirely: far more ginger, whole spice, and a long cold steep rather than a quick hot one. Twelve hours in the fridge after the initial pour gives a rounder, less sharp result than steeping hot for longer, which just makes it bitter.
On the Table Alongside
Black cake at Christmas · Pastelles · Ham, on Christmas morning
Storing Leftovers
Refrigerate up to 2 weeks; with rum in it, longer. It improves over the first three days as the spice settles.
Common Questions
How long does Sorrel Drink take to make?
15 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking, plus 12 hours to 24 hours of chilling, so allow 12 hours 30 minutes to 24 hours 30 minutes from start to finish. The method also needs time for cooling to room temperature, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 8.
What's in a Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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