By Knolly Moses, ContributorLONG SEEN as a Christmas drink, sorrel has traditionally been a seasonal crop for farmers. But recent successes with sorrel chutneys and jams and Big City Brewing Company's sorrel-themed shandy, Yardy Shandy is changing that.
More often the herb, which many believe has medicinal qualities, is being harvested year-round.
This upswing in demand is profoundly changing the image of the crop and what it means to small farmers. Many of them have increased acreage, even foregoing such staples as oranges and pumpkin. "Sorrel has always been good to me," says 51-year-old Alvin Smith, a farmer who has put three of his four children, through school with his sorrel sales. "But these days it's even better to me."
Since 1996, Smith, a Clarendon resident, has increased his income by planting more sorrel and less of his other crops. Virginia Dare, a Jamaican company manufacturing food flavours, colours and syrups buy up the extra output. Smith alone supplies Virginia Dare up to 3,000 pounds of sorrel per week, a fraction of the five to ten thousand pounds of sorrel the company buys during that period.
It's the kind of small-scale success story that pleases Big City's president, Peter Wong. "There is a trickle down effect when we buy the sorrel extract from Virginia Dare," says Wong. A portion of the money Big City pays Virginia Dare eventually makes its way into the pockets of small farmers like Alvin Smith. Many people outside farming communities don't see the impact, but it's a new activity that in its small way contributes to the country's economy.
Using indigenous Jamaican ingredients in drink products isn't solely about supporting small farmers. It's also an indication of how local companies like Big City compete with offbeat drink flavours and eye-catching packaging from overseas drink manufacturers.
"Our shops are swamped with high-concept sodas, pseudo-alcoholic beverages and caffeine-laden energy drinks from the United States," says Mr. Wong, who has headed Big City since the company started trading in 2000. "One way for us to compete is to take our own traditional drinks into the 21st century."
By adding sorrel to its Yardy Shandy product line, Big City, best known for its Real Rock beer, has put a new spin on a flavour that has tremendous cultural resonance with many Jamaicans. The formula has proven to be largely successful.
Big City launched Yardy Shandy last year without much fanfare. Very quickly, however, its ginger, lime, grapefruit and sorrel flavours found favour with a demographic usually more enamoured with fruit flav-oured drinks. Big City couldn't ask for a more lucrative niche market.
Ironically, while Big City developed the product so it could match foreign competitors with an indigenous drink, it has discovered that the greater demand for Sorrel Shandy (and Yardy Shandy) is in foreign markets. The company now exports cases of Sorrel Shandy and the range of Yardy Shandy flavours to the United Kingdom.
The strategy has been to break into overseas markets by taking advantage of Jamaica's cultural cache and name recognition. Many of Big City's distributors capitalise on the brand strength that the country has developed through cultural icons like Bob Marley and lately, Sean Paul.
