Salep

Salep looks like a mug of hot milk dusted with cinnamon, but it drinks like a warm, liquid pudding. It is velvety, thick, and surprisingly stretchy! The flavor is gentle, sweet, and milky, with earthy, floral hints from the orchid roots and a spicy warmth from the cinnamon.

How It's Made

The magic ingredient is a powder made from the washed, boiled, and dried roots of wild terrestrial orchids. Because these roots are packed with a complex starch called glucomannan, the powder is mixed with cold milk and stirred continuously over heat for 30 to 40 minutes. As it cooks, the starch gelatinizes, slowly transforming the milk into a incredibly thick, elastic, and foamy liquid.

The Story

Drinking wild orchid roots dates all the way back to the ancient Roman Empire, but Salep was truly perfected as a winter tradition during the Ottoman Empire. Amazingly, before tea and coffee took over the world, Salep was hugely popular in England during the 1700s, where it was sold from street carts as "Saloop" to warm up workers early in the morning! Today, authentic Salep is incredibly precious. Because it takes hundreds of wild orchids to make just one kilo of powder, Turkey has banned exporting the roots to protect their native wildflowers. That means to taste the real, stretchy, floral magic, you have to travel to Turkey yourself!