For the lover, an orchid is a more exotic gift than a rose, but perhaps it is no less amorous. Since ancient times, the orchid has been praised as a potent aphrodisiac when its bulbs are consumed. Greek mythology tells of a young boy named Orchis whose vice was lust. During a festival, the youth got drunk and broke a sacred taboo by seducing a priestess. For his crime, he was torn to pieces, but the gods were clement and granted him new life as each of the scattered pieces of his body sprouted into orchid flowers. The flowers invariably had two bulbs beneath their stem, resembling testicles, and thus carrying on the lustful legacy of their namesake.
The myth explains why orchids are endowed with sexual properties, but the word itself is proof of the belief. In ancient Greek, the word orchis literally means ‘testicle.’ The Arabic term for the same flowers, sahlab, translates as ‘fox-testicle.’ These names are not coincidental; the sexual nature of the plant was heralded by many great ancient thinkers including Avicenna and Pliny the Elder. Pliny wrote, “The root is employed in love potions: it is mostly found growing near the sea. Beaten up and applied with polenta or by itself, it heals tumors and various other affections of the reproductive organs. The root of the first kind, administered in the milk of a colonic sheep, causes an erection; taken in water it produces a contrary effect.” (Plin. Nat. 26.62) While we may not believe in its aphrodisiacal powers today, the same preparation of milk and orchid bulbs is still popular, particularly in Turkey.
Salep, saloop, or salepi, various bastardizations of the Arabic sahlab, are all acceptable names for a common Turkish beverage brewed during winter months from the dried powder of the orchid bulb. The drink predates the Turks who now occupy much of Anatolia and was likely the invention of the Hittite people. The Ottomans took a liking to the drink in the 9th century, and its popularity spread across much of the known world following their influence and expansion, stretching into east Europe and reaching as far west as the Central Asian foothills of the Himalayas. Indeed, before coffee and tea achieved widespread popularity in Europe, salep shops existed in most cosmopolitan cities.
Salep is the name of both the orchid powder and the beverage. It is made from milk, sugar, and ground orchid bulbs. Turkey is home to 150 species of orchids, 85% of which are tuberous. This means that the vast majority of Turkish orchids have the distinctive feature of two bulbs. One of these bulbs is known as ebesi in Turkish, meaning ‘midwife’. This bulb is shriveled and brown and is the source of the flower that exists above ground. The second bulb, Iyisi meaning ‘the good one,’ is a larger bulb that is intended for reproduction. As Pliny mentions, the good one was believed to stimulate a sexual appetite, while the shriveled one allayed it. It is the good one that is used to produce the hot salep beverage in Turkey today.
It is estimated that Turkish salep is sourced from around 30 different species of orchids falling into 8 genera such as Orchis, Anacamptis, Himantoglossum, and Dactylorhiza. One study lead by Ghorbani analyzed salep powder purchased in 12 different Iranian cities and found that most came from the genus Orchis (34%), with Anacamptis (27%) and Dactylorhiza (19%) the next most common. Low quality salep, called Cayur (meadow) salep, is made from Dactylorhiza iberica.
The harvest of salep by Turkish villagers is a labor intensive process in the country side. It occurs when the plants are flowering. In the Southern orchid region of Muğla the harvest is from March to April, and in the North salep-producing region of Kastamonu it is June to July. The orchids are uprooted and the good bulbs are washed in water to remove dirt. They then boil the bulbs in milk or ayran (watered down yogurt) in order to preserve water-soluble compounds and pasteurize the bulbs. The bulbs become white and transparent and are then air dried for several days. Kasparek suggests that the bulbs lose 90% of their weight during the drying process, so 1 kilogram of dried salep requires up to 2620 individual bulbs! Once dried, the salep is shelf stable for years.
When you are ready to drink some hot salep, the bulbs can be ground into a powder and mixed into hot milk for 10-15 minutes to arrive at the ideal consistency. The key to good salep is a thick viscosity as the bulbs contain 50% plant mucilage which enables them to sprout new bulbs. This contains glucomannan, a natural thickener now used as a food supplement. Thanks to its thickening properties, the orchid powder is also a key ingredient in traditional Turkish Maraş dondurmasi ice cream which mixes goat milk and sugar with salep. The orchid powder acts as a binder and increases the melting temperature, keeping the ice cream solid longer.
Many ancients believed salep had healing powers including calming ulcers, clearing phlegm, preventing miscarriage, curing venereal diseases, warding off scurvy, and even righting drunkenness. The orchids of Turkey were not the only ones used medicinally. People around the world have long used orchid roots, stems, and flowers to cure a variety of ailments. The Cherokee used the yellow-fringed orchid for headaches and the Chinese made shihu from Dendrobium nobile for digestion to name just a few examples.
The widespread global demand for orchid bulbs, whether as a medicine or just a hot drink, has threatened many orchid populations. In order to protect some of the species endemic only to the Anatolian peninsula, Turkey has technically outlawed the exportation of wild bulbs since 1989, although enforcement seems to be lax. Now, commercial harvesting has moved to Iran, where there is growing concern that the wild population of orchids is diminishing.
Due to the scarcity of pure salep, substitutes make for cheaper, more convenient options. The majority of salep drank today has little to no real salep powder in it. Among the substitutes we might find in our thick, white drinks are rice powder, guar gum, and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). While the powders of these substitutes make instant salep possible (whereas real salep takes time to mix), the true flavor of the traditional Turkish tipple has been lost. Real salep should be nearly flavorless, but these substitutes often mix in artificial flavors like vanilla to create an entirely new, but equally viscose, drink. Substitutes, while unauthentic, may present the only sustainable option in the long run for those who want to drink salep without endangering wild species of orchids.
Before decrying substitutes as unauthentic, consider the orchids and try some salep. Popular commercial powders make a thick, almost marshmallow-like concoction. These white drinks are creamy and frothy with nutty and vanilla undertones—maybe even reminiscent of yams. Sprinkle a bit of cinnamon or cardamom on top and you won’t be so concerned about how many orchids died for your drink. In fact, you may find yourself thinking of the Greek myth of Orchis and wondering what would happen if the drink really did contain orchid roots.
KAGAN, D.ARDUZLAR, et al. “Effects of Temperature, Shear Rate and Processing on the Rheological Properties of Salep Drink.” Italian Journal of Food Science, vol. 26, no. 3, July 2014, pp. 268–74. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=asn&AN=98323021&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Kasparek, Max, and Ute Grimm. “European trade in Turkish salep with special reference to Germany.” Economic Botany 53.4 (1999): 396-406.
Keskin, Berkay, and Erdoğan Güneş. “Social and cultural aspects of traditional drinks: A review on traditional Turkish drinks.” International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science 25 (2021): 100382.
Mattioli, Pietro Andrea. Petri Andreae Matthioli Senensis Medici: Commentarij in Sex Libros Pedacij Dioscoridis Anazarbei De Medica Materia. Ex Officina Valgrisiana, 1565, https://archive.org/details/PetriAndreaMatt00Matt/page/879/mode/1up?q=testiculus.
Sezik, Ekrem. “Turkish orchids and salep.” Acta Pharmaceutica Turcica 44 (2002): 151-157.
Teoh, Eng Soon. “An Ancient Fantasy: Salep as Aphrodisiac.” Orchids as Aphrodisiac, Medicine or Food. Springer, Cham, 2019. 13-54.
Teoh E.S. (2019) Usage of Medicinal Orchids by North American Indians. In: Orchids as Aphrodisiac, Medicine or Food. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18255-7_11
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