Sorghum is the small, round, pale-tan grain of Sorghum bicolor, a tall drought-tolerant grass and the world's fifth most important cereal after maize, wheat, rice and barley. The naked, pearl-like kernels are mild, faintly sweet and nutty with an earthy edge, and unlike wheat they carry no gluten. Across Africa and India sorghum is a daily staple — boiled whole like rice, ground into flour for flatbreads and porridges, or popped like tiny corn — while a sweet-stalked type is pressed and boiled down into the dark, tangy table syrup known as sorghum molasses.