The first Turkish Delights were flavoured with rose oil, clove, cinnamon, almonds, and pistachios. These flavours appealed to people who yearned for a taste of the east but were unable to travel there. In 1861, Turkish Delight was known as “Lumps of Delight” when it was imported to England. It was such a big occasion that Punch magazine published a cartoon to celebrate this occasion. This was hugely significant when you consider, media methods were restricted to Newspapers, magazines and versions of the written word.

Turkish Delight, or Lokum, at the time, became so popular that speciality shops began popping up everywhere. Charles Dickens even took one of his characters on a trip to one in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”, his final unfinished novel.

It wasn’t long before people were asking for further flavours such as mint, hazelnut and ginger. Many of these flavours are still available today. Lokum is packaged in a box, often hexagonal. Wax paper completely covers the pieces of candy and keeps the powdered sugar in place.

It is often wondered, with all the food in the World available, why does Edmund betray his three siblings for Turkish Delight? It is said that SWEETS: A HISTORY of CANDY could hold the answer, where a chapter is dedicated to memories of a small boy eating Lokum with his grandfather. Turkish Delight has since been very popular to this day.

While it might not be to everyone’s taste, Lokum has a very strong following. People generally make the assumption that the flavour used in the book is Rose Turkish delight, but this has never been verified. But from the book “the best Lokum. Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre.” suggests that it was authentically produced and certainly not made in Europe.