Salep, a hot, milky drink and a taffy-like ice cream made primarily from orchid tubers, is a staple in Turkey. In the wintertime the drink is a beloved street food consumed by the masses. However, a piece by The New York Times highlights the struggle of finding or making the drink in the United States, much to the dismay of the Turkish population, and why this scarcity has big implications for orchid conservation.
Over recent decades, the terrestrial orchids used to make salep have increasingly struggled in the face of habitat loss, climate change and over-harvesting. A single kilogram of salep requires around 1,000 to 4,000 orchid plants, often a mix of many different species. Many orchids are vulnerable to unsustainable, often illegal, harvest--often for international trade. Although international trade of all orchids is regulated by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), domestic management and trade rules are often poorly implemented.
Salep, a warm, milky drink. Photo credit: Colin Clark for The New York Times
The article highlights that salep arriving in the United States increasingly comes from Greece or Iran, and is imported with questionable legality. Often, buyers looking for a taste of home will pay up to $60 for 75 grams of 'pure' salep powder online. Many Middle Eastern grocers in the United States sell mixes of salep, often only imitations of the real thing. If customers want the real thing, their best hope might be to fly back to Turkey for the weekend, where salep remains popular, although wild orchids are increasingly scarce.
Read the full article here.