Dried hibiscus

Dried hibiscus is the sun-dried calyx -- the fleshy cup of sepals that wraps the seed capsule after the yellow flower has fallen -- of Hibiscus sabdariffa, an annual shrub of the mallow family. It is not, as the supermarket bag often claims, a dried flower; the petals are discarded and the calyx is the whole point. Four origins dominate the global trade: Upper Egypt, especially the Aswan-Luxor corridor, supplies most of the European herbal-tea market; Sudan, historically the largest producer with Kordofan and Darfur as heartland regions, sells to the Gulf, North Africa and the United States; Mexico, chiefly Guerrero and Oaxaca, supplies the agua de jamaica market at home and the Hispanic diaspora in the United States; and Jamaica, Trinidad and the wider Caribbean supply the Christmas sorrel drink. Senegal, Mali, Nigeria and Thailand fill the gaps. The calyx runs 15 to 30 percent organic acids (citric, malic, tartaric and the distinctive hibiscus acid), 1.5 to 2.5 percent anthocyanins (delphinidin-3-sambubioside and cyanidin-3-sambubioside) that give the radiant crimson, and a significant pectin load that thickens syrups. Culinary uses span agua de jamaica and Mexican chalupas, karkade hot and cold across the Arab world, Senegalese bissap and ginger blends, Jamaican and Trinidadian sorrel with rum and spice, Iranian chai-torosh, and Western cocktail syrups.