Turkish delight

Turkish delight, known in Turkish as lokum, is a family of sweets made from a gel of starch and sugar, flavoured with rosewater, lemon or other flavours, cut into cubes and dusted with sugar: see how is Turkish delight made?

A morsel of history

The Turkish names lokma and lokum come from the Arabic luqma, meaning a morsel or mouthful. The formal Arabic name means comfort of the throat. It is known by many names across the Balkans and beyond: loukoumi in Greece, rahat in Romania, ratluk in Serbia and Croatia.

The popular origin story comes from a company. According to the Hacı Bekir confectionery firm, its founder moved to Constantinople and opened a sweet shop in 1777, where he made lokum among other sweets. The sweets historian Tim Richardson has questioned the idea that Hacı Bekir invented it, writing that specific names and dates are often wrongly attached to the invention of sweets.

Edmund and the White Witch

In C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, published in 1950, the White Witch wins Edmund Pevensie's loyalty with enchanted Turkish delight. Sales of Turkish delight rose after the film of the story came out in 2005.

Full of Eastern Promise

Fry's Turkish Delight, a rose flavoured Turkish delight covered in milk chocolate, was launched by J. S. Fry and Sons in 1914. From the late 1950s its British television adverts used the slogan Full of Eastern Promise, and pictured Turkey as the Arabian desert and Turks as Arab Bedouins, a misleading, Orientalist stereotype. Since August 2010 the bars for Britain and Ireland have been made in Poland: see Fry's Chocolate Cream

What is in it

Turkish delight, as recorded by Open Food Facts. Sugar, water, corn flour, citric acid, flavourings, and curcumin and carmine as colours. The label warns that it may contain traces of nuts and peanuts.

A Mondelez Turkish delight bar, as recorded by Open Food Facts. Glucose syrup, sugar, water, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, modified maize starch, skimmed milk powder, whey permeate, pectin, milk fat, palm oil, flavourings, an emulsifier, carmine as a colour, and a firming agent.

Diet and allergy points

• Carmine. Both recipes here are coloured with carmine, a red made from insects, so they are not vegan: see what is carmine?
• Milk. The chocolate bar contains milk: see milk in sweets
• Nuts. Traditional premium kinds bind nuts such as pistachios or hazelnuts into the gel, and the loose recipe here may contain nuts and peanuts: see which sweets contain nuts?
• Gelatine. Neither recipe here contains gelatine; they are set with starch, and pectin in the bar.

In our pick and mix

We do not sell Turkish delight. Each sweet we do sell has a card that opens up to show its full ingredients and allergens.

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