Turkish Delight Lokum
Turkish Delight or "lokum" in Turkish is a sweet confection made from starch and sugar. Turkish Delight is often flavored with rosewater and lemon, the former giving it a characteristic pale pink color. Lokum 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 to the teeth.
Lokum or the Turkish delight is one of turkey's most famous exports. It is mostly served with Turkish coffee at the end of a meal. There are now some Turkish Delight factories where you can book a tour to watch it being produced and sample the wares after the production.
The recipe for turkish delight, as we know it today, using the new ingredients of sugar and starch, was invented and popularized by the Hacı Bekir Sekerleme company during the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century.
Turkish delight was introduced to the Western World in the 19th century. An unknown Britanian became very fond of the delicacy during his travels to the Ottoman Capital 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.