The secret of ice cream that doesn’t melt in Türkiye

Not all creams are the same. American-style ice cream is famous for its rich milky taste and light texture, Italian Gelato is churned slower and served at a higher temperature. Indian Kulfi is thick and not whipped.

In Türkiye, Maraş dondurma ice cream is as chewy as candy and almost does not melt. The secret lies in salep, a powder made from orchid roots, only produced domestically.

For most visitors, the first experience with Maraş dondurma comes from the performances of ice cream vendors on famous tourist streets such as İstiklal Avenue or Ortaköy Square in Istanbul.

Dressed in the traditional outfit of embroidered waistcoats and red fez hats, typical of the central Kahramanmaraş region, home of the ice cream, the sellers resemble magicians.

Standing next to carts, they use long metal bars to smash, knead and stretch colorful dough-like ice cream blocks, rotating them as skillfully as a pizza artist in Naples, Italy.

The performance begins when guests approach. The long sticks continuously bring the ice cream in front of the customer and then suddenly retract it, turn it upside down, and rotate, turning buying an ice cream into a humorous chase game.

To enjoy the best dondurma, visitors should skip the ice cream carts performing on the street and go to handmade ice cream shops.

The high-end ice cream chain Serez Gurme Dondurma, which currently has nine stores in Istanbul, was founded by Mr. Serdar Kemahlı in 2010. At the store in Caddebostan, the Asian coastal neighborhood of the city, he said he decided to open the store when he was in his 40s. At that time, he traveled to a small town on the Aegean coast and saw a long line of people lining up in front of an ice cream shop.

“Everyone is patient and happy. On the adults’ faces is the same excitement as children,” he said.

At that time, Serdar was unemployed. After that trip, he started opening an ice cream shop. After more than a year of testing and adjusting the recipe, he opened his first store.

At the store in Caddebostan, the most popular flavor is pistachio, the pale green nut of which Türkiye is one of the world’s largest producers.

Trays of delicious ice cream with flavors of Madagascar vanilla, chocolate, walnut, Bodrum tangerine and sour cherry are neatly arranged, ready to be scooped into ice cream towers so high that it seems to defy gravity.

All ingredients are natural, no artificial flavors or additives are used. The ice cream has a firm texture but is still greasy, soft and smooth, without the feeling of ice chips, and has a rich flavor.

Traditionally, dondurma is made only from milk, beet sugar and salep – a powder ground from the tubers of the Dactylorhiza romana orchid, a plant native to Southern Europe, North Africa and the mountains of south-central Turkey, where this ice cream was born.

To increase elasticity, people also add mastic, a natural tree resin.

Since ancient times, salep has been used to mix drinks and prepare many dishes. At the Serez Dondurmacısı store in Caddebostan, he also sells a drink made from salep, which has a sweet taste.

“What makes salep so precious is the glucomannan molecule contained in it. Glucomannan is the “scientific secret” that creates the tough, elastic and sliceable texture of dondurma, making it difficult for the ice cream to melt. Currently, a kilogram of pure salep powder costs over 200 USD.

However, overexploitation over the years has pushed the orchid species that produce salep to the brink of extinction. They are currently protected by the European Union (EU) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Therefore, Türkiye strictly prohibits exporting salep abroad.

According to Serdar, the orchid used to produce salep has two roots. If the harvester only takes one tuber and leaves the remaining tuber in the ground, the plant can still continue to grow. “Unfortunately they often dig both,” he said.

To produce one kilogram of salep powder, 1,000 to 2,000 orchids are needed. Even though this plant is protected under international law, every year millions of plants are still stolen.

Currently, artificial salep is commonly used to produce salep ice cream and drinks. However, according to Serdar, this substitute cannot compare with natural ingredients. At Serez Gurme Dondurma, the store still uses real salep in moderation, while supporting sustainable farming models in the Turhal region.

“We protect what makes ice cream possible,” he said.

Fruits for ice cream are purchased directly from small farmers by Serez Gurme Dondurma. The chain of stores applies a no-pesticides policy, because these chemicals kill insects, pollute water sources and degrade soil microflora.

At each store, there are thick blue files, storing laboratory test results to prove the purity of ingredients.

2025, culinary guide TasteAtlas Voted dondurma as the best frozen dessert in the world.

TasteAtlas representative said that dondurma’s outstanding heat resistance and unique elastic texture, different from all other frozen sweets, make dondurma a dish that any tourist should try.

However, while ice creams like gelato have become familiar globally, dondurma is still relatively unknown outside of Türkiye.

The biggest reason is that authentic dondurma can almost only be enjoyed in Türkiye, where there is still a rare source of natural salep ingredients. Therefore, for food lovers, this special ice cream deserves to be included in the must-try list when visiting the country, alongside kebabs and baklava.