Caribbean Food Emporium -Sisserou

Three questions:

1) Does your grandmother have a handwritten recipe book, full of family favourites?

2) Would other people enjoy the drinks and dishes found in that book?

3) Could you transform one of those recipes into a unique, branded product?

For most of us, the answers are yes, yes and no. But not so for Norwich-based Julia La Ronde, who has gone all the way and turned her grandmother's rum, cream and coconut drink into Sisserou, a full strength liqueur that has just made its debut in Norfolk.

The story of Sisserou begins on the Caribbean island of Dominica. "It was something my grandmother used to make", says Julia, "So I've had the idea for turning that recipe into Sisserou for a very long time. When I was at university in Virginia, my mum used to send me bottles of the stuff every time someone came to visit. We had parties in my room, and my friends all loved it. But I put the idea on the back burner in 1992 after I went back to Dominica and talked to a local lab about producing it commercially. A number of potential difficulties were highlighted, so it was not until 1999, when I was in the UK, at home listening to a programme on Radio Norfold, that things got moving again."

A listener who had been on holiday in the Caribbean called in asking if anyone knew the recipe for a fantastic local rum-based drink, and Julia sent in an email, offering to make some for the caller for Christmas. The next thing she knew, she was on air with host John Mills and the original caller, who tried their hardest to get Julia to reveal the recipe. No deal.

"Then John Mills asked if I was planning to market it and offered to put me in touch with John Murphy, founder of St. Peter's Brewery. I met John and the managing director of Plymouth Gin. They tasted it, gave it two thumps up and advised me to secure the intellectual rights and develop it myself, rather than let a big company take the idea"

The next stop was a food technician at City College in Norwich, who sent Julia to a well-connected food consultant. "There were six or seven responses to a notice the consultant put on the web," remembers Julia, " and I chose a company in Ireland, Robert A Merry & Company, who could not only develop the drink but would be able to manufacture it."

It was a happy choice, Together, RA Merry's and Julia have perfected the commercial version of the drink at 19 per cent alcohol, a couple of points stronger than many liqueurs, and shortly afterwards had produced the first batch for sale. Julia settled on the name Sisserou, the name of an endangered Dominican parrot, whose silhouette appears on the bottle. In the longer term, Julia plans to dedicate a percentage of the profits from Sisserou to saving the bird's habitat.

So try Sisserou for yourself - it comes highly recommended by the editorial department at A Magazine - and however keen your grandmother is to try Jamie Oliver's or Gary Rhode's latest recipe, do not under any circumstances let her get ride of her old recipe book. It might just contain the Next Big Thing.

Sisserou is presently exported to Switzerland. The company also recently made a huge impact at the Daily Telegraph House and Garden Show. If you cannot find it at your local off license, get them to contact Julia La Ronde,

Source A Magazine, January 2002

Sisserou , is a delicious blend of pure West Indian rum, coconut and cream.

Pour straight over ice or enjoy as a liqueur.

You can now obtain single bottles of Sisserou delivered anywhere in mainland UK for only £19.95!(inclusive of VAT and delivery)

See the website at www.sisserou.co.uk for recipe and cocktail ideas.

If you would like to send a gift we can also include a personalised card.

Look out for Sisserou chocolates coming soon!!

Trade enquiries welcome

...white is the new cream

www.sisserou.co.uk

Sisserou Marketing Limited

PO Box 748

Norwich NR2 3GX

Tel. 01603 259 819

Fax. 01603 492 595