Hibiscus Sauce (Sirope de Flor de Jamaica)

Reprinted with permission fromThe New Taste of Chocolateby Maricel Presilla, © 2009 Ten Speed Press Maricel Presilla is a culinary historian specializing in the foods of Latin America and Spain. She holds a doctorate in medieval Spanish history from New York University and has received formal training in cultural anthropology. Dr. Presilla has done considerable research on Latin American agriculture—with special emphasis on tropical crops, cacao and vanilla agriculture, and chocolate production. She is the president of Gran Cacao Company a Latin American food research and marketing company that specializes in the sale of premium cacao beans from Latin America. She has completed a comprehensive Latin American cookbook for W.W. Norton and has contributed articles forSaveur,Food & Wine,Food Arts, andGourmet. She writes a weekly food column for theMiami Heraldand is as comfortable sailing down the Orinoco to collect recipes in the field as she is cooking at Zafraand Cucharamama, her pan-Latin restaurants in Hoboken, New Jersey. Last year she opened Ultramarinos, a Latin American store and cooking atelier, also in Hoboken, NJ, where she sells Latin ingredients, prepared foods, premium chocolates and Blue Cacao, her own line of truffles with Latin flavors.