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Turkish Delight

Turkish Delight, lokum, or loukoum is a confection made from starch and sugar. It is often flavored with rosewater and lemon, the former giving it a characteristic pale pink color. It has a soft, jelly-like and sometimes sticky consistency, and is often packaged and eaten in small cubes that are dusted with icing sugar or copra to prevent sticking. Some types contain small nut pieces, usually pistachio, hazelnut or walnuts. Other common types include flavors such as cinnamon or mint. In the production process soapwort may be used as an additive, serving as an emulsifier.

Origin

According to the Ali Muhiddin Hacı Bekir Confectioners company of Istanbul, founded in 1777, lokum has been produced in Turkey since the 15th century. Originally, honey and molasses were used as sweeteners, and water and flour were the binding agents.
The recipe for lokum as we know it today, using the new ingredients of sugar and starch, was invented and popularized by the Hacı Bekir company during the 19th century.
Lokum was introduced to the West in the 19th century. An unknown Briton became very fond of the delicacy during his travels to Istanbul, and purchased cases of lokum, to be shipped back to Britain under the name Turkish Delight. It became a major delicacy not only in Britain, but throughout Continental Europe.

Name

The Turkish word lokum may come from lokma in Turkish or لقوم luqūm, the Arabic plural of لقمة luqma(t) 'morsel' or 'mouthful'. Alternatively, it may have derived from Ottoman rahat hulkum or Arabic راحة الحلقم raḥat al-ḥulqum 'contentment of the throat'. In Libya, for example, it is known as حلقوم ḥalqūm. In Bosnia, its name "rahatluk" and its Romanian name "rahat" clearly relates this etymology.
In English, it was formerly called "lumps of delight".
Turkish Delight should not be confused with Turkish Taffy, a packaged nougat candy sold in the United States from the 1940s through the 1980s.

Around the world

In North America, Turkish Delight is not especially common, though it forms the basic foundation of the Big Turk chocolate bar (Nestlé, Canada) and is also the basis for most of Liberty Orchards' line of confectionery, including Aplets & Cotlets. Fry's Turkish Delight is produced by Cadbury in the United Kingdom and Australia. The interior jelly of jelly beans may trace its origin back to Turkish Delight.
It is known in Brazil as Delícia Turca, Bala de Goma (Síria/Árabe).
Other cuisines also have sweets similar to Turkish Delight:

• Armenian
• Cypriot, Greek: "λουκούμι", loukoumi (in Southern Cyprus, marketed in English as Cyprus Delight)
• Albanian: "llokum"
• Bulgarian and Macedonian: "локум", lokum
• Romanian: "rahat"
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: "rahat lokum"
• Serbia: "ратлук", ratluk
• Iranian and other Middle Eastern

In Ireland, a Turkish immigrant founded a confectionery company called "Hadji Bey et Cie" which made Turkish Delight until the 1990s.

Protected geographical indication

Despite its worldwide popularity and production in several countries, at present, the only pending protected geographical indication (PGI) for such a product is for loukoumi made in Cyprus.

In popular culture

Turkish Delight features as the addictive confection to which Edmund Pevensie succumbs in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. Sales of Turkish Delight rose following the theatrical release of the film version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
There are "gourmand" perfumes that use Loukoum or Loukhoum in their names and that are said to smell like the confection, as Loukhoum by Ava Luxe, Loukhoum by Keiko Mecheri and Loukoum by Serge Lutens.
Turkish Delight is the main subject of the song "Rahadlakum" from the Broadway musical Kismet. Turkish Delight is also mentioned in the song "Candy Shop", the first song off the album Hard Candy by American singer Madonna.

Lokum on a plate



A tray of Turkish Delight

Source