Turkey Travel: Salep at Kavacik
The First Salep of the Winter
Of Salep, Paracelsus the famous toxicologist wrote: “Behold the Satyrion root, is it not formed like the male privy parts? Accordingly magic discovered it and revealed that it can restore a man’s virility and passion”.
Salep is also the name of a beverage made from salep flour, whose popularity spread beyond Turkey and the Middle East to England and Germany before the rise of coffee and tea and later offered as an alternative beverage in coffee houses. In England, the drink was known as “saloop”. Popular in the 17th and 18th centuries in England its preparation required that the salep powder be added to water until thickened whereupon it would be sweetened then flavoured with orange flower or rose waters.
In Turkey the drink continues to be popular, so much so that the wild orchids used to make the Salep flour needed to make the drink are at a premium. It is illegal to export the orchids outside of the country.
Many cafés sell instant Salep, but this is made using artificial sweeteners and flavouring. True Salep is sold in up-market coffee houses like the Sehil delicatessen and café in Kavacık.
“Behold the Satyrion root, is it not formed like the male privy parts?”
