Turkish delight in South Africa: the local bar, the nougat box and the box from Gaziantep

The local chocolate bar

The largest search in the country is for Turkish delight chocolate, and it points at a South African bar: a rose jelly centre in milk chocolate, made locally for generations. It is not lokum in the Turkish sense; it borrowed the name. What Gaziantep makes in that direction is chocolate covered Turkish delight, cubes and pistachio pieces in a chocolate shell, sold in boxes. A bar format is sourced on request. We do not name the local brands; the trade knows them.

The nougat box

The second product is the rose and nougat box on the sweet shelf, a South African confection sold as Turkish delight and given as a gift. It is soft, sweet and local. The Turkish box is a different thing: starch-set lokum, dusted, in rose, lemon and pomegranate, and the Gaziantep finger roll filled with whole pistachio and coated in coconut or kadayif. Side by side they are two products with one name, and a delicatessen can stock both; the customer who has tasted the original knows the difference at once.

The box from Gaziantep

Boxed Turkish delight from Gaziantep is the third product, and the one behind best Turkish delight South Africa and Turkish delight sweets South Africa searches from people who have tasted the original. Turkish grocers, Mediterranean delis and gift shops in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban stock it; the Turkish delight page lists the groups and the special lokum counter range belongs to the same shelf. Retail boxes can carry your own name on selected lines.

Halaal and the box

Plain starch-set lokum carries few of the ingredients a halaal certifier checks; chocolate covered pieces and jellied lines carry more. Either way the certificate is ours, named per line in the offer with the certifying body, which is how the Durban trade builds its list. The Turkish delight explained article covers the recipe and the varieties.

How it travels

Plain and dusted lokum travels dry all year to Durban or Cape Town. Chocolate covered pieces follow the chocolate rule on this route: a reefer year round, because the container crosses the tropics. Each line has its own pallet, so the Turkish delight box shares the container with jellies for the tuck shop and dragées for the wedding table. The South Africa page lists what stays the same on every offer.

What to send

What we need to price it: the lines you want from the turkish delight page, how much of each, and where it lands. Two working days later the written offer comes back with the specification, the case weight and the minimum per line.

A sample goes out before any of that if you want to taste the lines first — free from running production, courier at your cost. The south africa: what stays the same on every offer page lists what stays the same on every offer, and the private label for south african brands page covers putting your own name on the pack.