[Sca-cooks] Sekajabin & other Syrups

[Maggie MacDonald]

At 08:04 PM 6/10/2003,Christine Seelye-King said something like:
>I went to a reception on Friday for a group of women farmers from Senegal.
>They have formed a farming cooperative and have been touring the South to
>see cooperative farms, the Tuskeegee Institute, etc.  They came through
>Atlanta for this reception to meet the folks that had sponsored them.  They
>brought their cheif product which they are hoping to import, "Bissap Sirop"
>or Syrup of Hibiscus flowers.  It is a ruby red color, and gets diluted with
>water for a drink that is used as a tonic, lower blood pressure, etc.  It is
>absolutely wonderful, having the flavor of Red Zinger tea in a sweetened
>form.

This sounds like a dead ringer for the hispanic beverage "Jamaica" which is
made from red hibiscus flowers, steeped/boiled into a deep red concentrate,
then sweetened a tad (and sometimes a little lime juice added).

>However, the translator did say that they also produced other
>syrups like Tamarind.

That would be really really nice. All the hispanic food products I've seen
for tamarind drink are ... .. over sweetened. It would be nice to find one
that tasted like tamarind.

>I stood there thinking they probably made Sekanjabin,
>too, since they came from the same text!  I snagged a bottle and brought it
>home, it is really good.  They are having spectral analysis done at
>Tuskeegee to determine the various sugar types and other information they
>will need for a food label to be able to import.   Hopefully they will be
>able to bring it into the US, I'd love to buy more!
>Christianna

And you'll let us know how this turns out???
Thank you in advance,
Maggie MacD.