‘Tis the season for sorrel, and what better way for small business owners to highlight the versatility of this beloved Trini Christmas staple than at Sunday’s D Santa Summit and Sorrel Melee?
The Melee was one of the premiere events for small business owners to showcase their creative takes on this festive favourite.
Owner of Trinidad Homestead and Indigenous Kitchen, Valerie Paul, stressed the importance of vendors attending such events.
“It’s very important. What you may notice is that the vendors are mainly women that are single mothers. You know, women entrepreneurs doing these kind of markets. So it’s very important to give them a way of getting out there.”
Innovative small business owners demonstrated sorrel’s wide range of uses with product displays featuring sorrel salad dressing, liqueur, and organic sorrel powder for year-round enjoyment.
Owner of G&B Blends. Gillian O’Neil, highlighted her products and discussed the importance of supporting local vendors.
“So we have a sorrel salad dressing, and our dressing is a mayonnaise-based salad dressing and you can use it with any type of dressing. It’s really, really important for us to showcase our local fruits and vegetables. We really do need to focus basically on what Trinidad and Tobago has to offer rather than focussing on the foreign market.”
Ms. Paul discussed her sorrel liqueur, a rich, dark-coloured beverage made without any preservatives.
“This is a plain liqueur and we don’t use any sort of preservatives at all. That’s one of the rules of our little organisation. We keep away from chemicals like colouring and preservatives.”
There can be no Sorrel Melee without sorrel ice cream. One attendee Vishal, a Couva resident, described the delicacy as having a “nice Christmas taste.” He also discussed the reasons the Melee is important.
“Things like this is very important because it showcases our local products and it brings that awareness to what exists in our beautiful country.”
The event highlighted the importance of celebrating local small businesses and their versatility to Trinidad and Tobago’s culinary landscape.