"Today, that history lives inside a bottle created by Jackie Summers, founder of Jack from Brooklyn and the first black person to be granted a license to make liquor post-prohibition in U.S history. With Sorel Liqueur, Summers did more than launch a spirits brand. He reclaimed a cultural legacy and forced an industry to reckon with who gets credit and capital in American business."
""Sorrel has been part of Caribbean culture for generations," Summers said. "You can trace it from West Africa to the Caribbean. It survived because our ancestors made sure it did." Made from dried hibiscus flowers with spices like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. The result is a deep red, aromatic liqueur that's tart, lightly sweet, and warming, often described as tasting like cranberry, pomegranate, and spice."
"Everything changed in 2010. Doctors discovered a tumor inside Summers' spine and told him he had a 95% chance of dying and a 50% chance of paralysis if he survived. He lived. He walked. And he walked away from a 25-year corporate career. "That was the moment," Summers said. "I decided to leave corporate life and put my heritage in a bottle." Turning a homemade cultural staple into a shelf-stable, commercial product took 624 attempts."
Sorel Liqueur originates from a sorrel tradition carried from West Africa to the Caribbean, preserved in kitchens and passed through generations. The liqueur is made from dried hibiscus flowers and spices such as cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, producing a deep red, tart, lightly sweet, warming flavor. Jackie Summers adapted a family recipe learned from grandparents from Barbados and Nevis and turned it into a commercial product after surviving a severe spinal tumor and leaving a 25-year corporate career. Creating a shelf-stable formula required 624 attempts; Sorel now sells widely and has won many awards, though public recognition has lagged.
Read at Caribbean Life
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