Salop | Sahlep

This 1808 image of an old vendor woman selling salop in London seems simple at first glance. Created by William H Pyne for The Costumes of Great Britain (one of 60 beautifully produced hand-colored drawings), the image shows the vendor surrounded by customers waiting for a warm drink, which she pours fresh and hot into white bowls from a samovar (still). 

 Mavi Boncuk |

Salop/Saloop UK EN, Sahlep US EN, Salep TR/SP/FR [1]via French and Turkish from Arabic  سحلب saḥlab, shortened from khusy ath-tha`lab, literally: fox's testicles[2], name of an orchid. 


Salep was a popular beverage in the lands of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Its consumption spread beyond there to England and Germany before the rise of coffee and tea and it was 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 flavored with orange flower or rose waters. The powder could also be made up with milk. "Drink it in china cups as chocolate; it is a great sweetener of the blood" advised one recipe. In the 18th century it was a beverage for fashionable townspeople. At the height of its popularity (in the 1720"s) salop was served in coffee houses as an alternative to coffee or chocolate; and salop-vendors peddled the drink in the streets, or sold it from booths.


A similar drink, was already known in parts of England made from "dogstones" (the roots of the native orchids) and ground sago - so resembled a thin gruel, but English druggists began to sell imported Turkish orchid roots with which to make a superior form.

SOURCE
[1] Sahlep is a milky beverage served in a porcelain cup. Its secret ingredient is a flour ground from the hand-harvested roots of Old world Anatolian mountain orchid species (Orchis mascula, Orchis militaris, Eulophia. These starchy tubers provide a consistency somewhere between hot chocolate and lump-free tapioca.The popularity of sahlab in Turkey has led to a decline in the populations of wild orchids. As a result it is illegal to export true salep out of the country.


[2] 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". The Ancient Romans also used ground orchid bulbs to make drinks, which they called by a number of names, especially satyrion and priapiscus. As the names indicate, they likewise considered it to be a powerful aphrodisiac.