"dried hibiscus flowers" news and stories

Alabama-born LeNell Smothers defines herself first and foremost as a bartender, but she's been called many things -- most recently, the proprietress of LeNell's liquor store. She's owned her own whiskey label, called Red Hook Rye, and has been recognized by her home state as an honorary Colonel. Other interests include gin, sin and men.

My first truckload of household goods from the States arrived in Mexico this past week. As soon as the refrigerator powered on, we headed to the market for groceries. First stop was a stand labeled "Semillas," meaning "seeds," where we found nuts, spices and dried hibiscus known as "jamaica" heaped tall in metal tubs and baskets. Tired of the boring jamaica we've found in restaurants -- over diluted and often made with jamaica concentrate -- Demian and I were excited to make a big batch of deep ruby red, tart jamaica as one of the first things to put into Casa Cóctel's refrigerator.

Alberta Straub, aka Miss Flighty, is a bartender committed to organic, natural ingredients in her drink making. She introduced me to making cocktails with jamaica. Miss Flighty loves using it as a replacement for cranberry juice and has been quite the evangelist for jamaica's refreshing, inexpensive and kidney-cleansing benefits. Jamaica is one of Alberta's bar essentials and she proved to me how delicious and versatile it is. Now it's a bar essential for me, too.

Whenever someone mentioned edible flowers to me, whether as part of a dish or used as a garnish, I nodded politely and did not think much of it. I considered edible flowers to be among the items that one can only find at a store with hard-to-find specialty ingredients - ingredients that I would probably never use, let alone actually need. This week, however, I spotted bags of hibiscus flowers at Trader Joe's.

Sold alongside the other dried fruits, the hibiscus flowers are dried and lightly sweetened. Apart from their beautiful dark fuchsiacolor, they taste pretty good. Slightly sweet and chewy, like fruit leather, they have a bit of a vegetal undertone that is not present in most dried fruits. I think that they'd make an attractive garnish for cakes and even a nice, unusual addition to a spring-time salad. They are not, however, something that I would eat by the handful.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]