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Drinks, Smoothies and Cocktails

My 7 ingredient Zobo drink

Zobo, the popular refreshing drink made out of steeping mauve coloured dried leaves in warm water. The English, or do I say the Carribean name for Zobo is Sorrel. I never liked Zobo drink to be honest. It wasn’t something my mother made at home often (thankfully), so most of my zobo drinking memories were from drinking it at a friend or family members house or at parties where it was served to kids and young adults. It used to amaze me how people gulped the thing down with such relish. I could barely tolerate it. To not come across as a snotty teenager I used to hold my breath, gulp it down with such speed and you couldn’t pay me to ask for seconds. The smell was offensive, the taste was offensive, ugh!!

At some point, it was the craze everywhere. No party was complete without the deep mauve coloured drink. It used to amaze me why this was so because any spillage and your party dress was almost ruined. Zobo used to rank up there with Kunu, which I still don’t like but now that I have been making zobo myself a few times now and finally perfecting the recipe which I am writing now, I just may go ahead and try out Kunu. This is my chic Zobo drink, with a little kick and lots of ooomph.

You will need

2 cups of the zobo leaves

6 cups of water

1 orange – juice and rind

1/2 a lemon – juice and rind

2 tablespoons of whole cloves – called konafuru

1 tablespoon of dried chilli flakes – substitute with dried shombo or cayenne pepper (dry pepper)

1 cinnamon stick – substitute with 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon powder

2 tablespoons of organic honey

2 stumps of fresh ginger

Sugar syrup to finish – optional

SAM_9455

Zobo leaves – also called Sorrel

SAM_9465

cinnamon stick, whole cloves and ginger

SAM_9463

SAM_9459    SAM_9467

How To

1. Measure two cups of the zobo leaves, pour into a colander and give it a good rinse with cold water. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the leaves tend to hold a lot of dust and particles so ensure you rinse it properly. Preferrable under a running tap, reducing the essence of the leaves rinsing out. i.e. don’t sit it in a bowl and rinse. This will cause wastage.

SAM_9471

2. Measure the cloves and grind into a powder

 SAM_9473 SAM_9477

3. Prep the other ingredients i.e slice the orange, extract the juice and cut up the pulp and rind into quarters. Do the same for the lemon. As for the ginger, I used two stumps showed in the picture below. Peel the skin and pound in a mortar and pestle or roughly blend.

SAM_9481

4. In a pot, add the zobo leaves and 6 cups of cold water. Set the heat to low and add all the ingredients from Step 3, including the cinnamon stick. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: i know some recipes state that boil water and pour over the leaves, like making tea. I have found that the taste of the drink is more intense when you let the leaves steep slowly with the ingredients. The end result is also a very rich and thick juice. Intense heat also destroys the flavour, hence low heat. This will take time, but the results are so worth it. SAM_9478

5. When the mixture starts to boil, take it off the heat. remember my earlier comment about intense heat? I gave it a taste and I loved it, but I wanted to give it a little extra kick. I added more cloves (about half a teaspoon) and a little ginger (a small bit) which gave it more oomph, but I still wanted that kick. I thought to myself, what, what, what, then it hit me. Aaaaaah, dried chilli flakes. 1 tablespoon and BOOM!!! I got what I wanted. One sip and you can taste all the aromatic spices permeating through your taste buds and on swallowing you feel a tingling sensation from the chilli. Perfect.

  SAM_9483

I thought 1 tablespoon was a tad much at first, and that was probably because the drink was still hot. When it cooled down, it was much better. You can use less if you wish. Transfer the mixture into a plastic bowl, add the honey and leave to cool down. Ordinarily you would sieve out the leaves, the orange, lemon and cinnamon stick once it cools. No, I did not do that, I left it to steep further for 2 days. Day 1 on my kitchen counter and Day 2 in the fridge.

SAM_9489

Each time I tasted it, it was much better. By day 2 it wasn’t improving anymore, so I strained out the leaves and the other ingredients. What you will be left with is a really thick drink. Rather than dilute it with just water, transfer the sieved out contents to a bowl and add hot water. Use the resultant solution to dilute the drink, that way you get as much as you can out of the leaves, after which you can discard.

 SAM_9490

Leave to chill in the fridge, or hasten the process by adding ice cubes and serve garnished with slices of Orange, Lemon and Lime. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: don’t add sugar syrup until you are ready to serve. I find that sugar alters the taste after some time in the fridge.

SAM_9723

Spicy, sweet and sharp

SAM_9731

a drink that is relevant, whatever time of the year.

SAM_9732

To serve in a glass, add ice cubes

SAM_9759

Add a slice of lemon to the edge of the glass. Cheers!!!!

SAM_9788

With my big batch of Zobo chilling in the fridge, I am going to give it a twist by making cocktails out of it. A zobo Martini, which I term a Zobotini, a Zobo Margarita – get out the tequila. You could also make a Sangria with it, to make your own signature cocktail. Get creative with it. I will also be making a dessert out of this. Ice cream machine to the rescue.See you at the next post. Cheers!!


61 Comments

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FILED UNDER: Drinks, Smoothies and Cocktails
TAGGED WITH: Sorrel, sorrel drink, Zobo, zobo drink
Dooney

About Dooney

Dooney is the blogger, recipe developer and photographer for Dooney's Kitchen. I spend my days trying to figure out creative ways to redefine Nigerian food, either by creating a new dish itself using ingredients in ways that have never been used before, or changing the approach to Nigerian cooking using kitchen gadgets.

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Comments

  1. AvatarOlamike says

    October 26, 2014 at 4:22 pm

    Zobo drink is known to ferment quickly most times, please what can be added to prevent this or rather how long do you advice to keep refrigerated before it is no longer safe for consumption, because I don’t know if the fermented one is still safe for consumption. . .

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      October 30, 2014 at 12:46 am

      Refrigerate for 10 days or less, and it should be fine. Fermentation only introduces alcohol. As long as you are not pregnant or giving it to children, it is fine. I really haven’t encountered that problem before, so I don’t know what to advise about preventing fermentation

      Reply
  2. AvatarFreda Josh Simon says

    November 12, 2014 at 1:43 pm

    Hi Dooney, I’m back again o always trailing you LOL….so I made Tigernuts’ Milk and I want to try my hands on Zobo drink this weekend,did you grind the Lemon,Orange and Ginger? Again which one is Rind pls o?

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      November 12, 2014 at 3:26 pm

      Welcome back Freda, I am always happy to hear from you. No, you don’t need to grind them, add them whole, so you can pick them out. The rind is the skin of the orange. I hope that helps

      Reply
      • AvatarFreda Josh Simon says

        November 12, 2014 at 4:35 pm

        Thanks mama! I gotcha

        Reply
  3. Avatarkacchiz says

    February 4, 2015 at 7:54 am

    nice one again. wanna try it today but please did you cover the bowl when you allowed it to sit on the counter and also in the fridge? also the cloves, is it what the seller call zobo seeds? cos heard that from where i went to get the zobo leaves.

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      February 4, 2015 at 1:08 pm

      Yes I did, but it doesn’t really matter. It is also called konafuru. I hope that helps

      Reply
  4. Avataradeola says

    February 9, 2015 at 8:56 pm

    You know Dunni, i recently made beet juice and my friend said it tasted and looks like Zobo. I have never had zobo before, but looking at your pictures, i can believe her. Do you know if the leaves and beets are in the same family

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      February 10, 2015 at 6:15 pm

      Hmmmm, interesting question. I don’t think so thougj

      Reply
  5. AvatarStella says

    February 25, 2015 at 4:56 pm

    hey Dooney, I used your recipe to do some zobo and i am not sure why mine has a very sharp slightly bitter taste. It is still in the fridge with all the lemon, and cinnamon inside… Do you have any idea why?
    I do not want to add sugar to it

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      February 26, 2015 at 1:17 pm

      Hmmmmn, taste the lemons. If they are bitter, that is the culprit

      Reply
  6. AvatarModupe says

    May 19, 2015 at 5:53 pm

    Wow!!!!!! You’re sooooo creative ☺ Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  7. AvatarOluwakemi says

    June 22, 2015 at 2:00 pm

    Interesting post, maam. But are all the ingredients safe in pregnancy. Thanks a lot

    Reply
    • dooneyrooneydooneyrooney says

      June 24, 2015 at 4:50 pm

      Hi Kemi, please ask a doctor or a midwife, as i am not qualified to give an affirmative answer and i won’t want to mislead you

      Reply
  8. Avatarjoyce says

    September 15, 2015 at 1:18 pm

    nice one dooney

    Reply
  9. AvatarArrow says

    December 13, 2015 at 11:00 am

    Hi Dunni, nice recipe here, will try it when I get the chance.

    I just want to point out that you’re probably confusing the name sorrel with roselle.

    Keep up the good work.

    Reply
    • AvatarArrow says

      December 13, 2015 at 11:04 am

      Never mind, you’re right. I just confirmed that it’s called sorrel in Jamaica.

      Reply
  10. AvatarKIKELOMO says

    March 30, 2016 at 6:46 am

    nice one…

    Reply
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