Liesl Schillinger has a great little essay in Slate about The Lion, the Witch, and the Really Foul Candy. (Funnily enough she shares my childhood impression that Turkish Delight must be something like a very buttery shortbread.) I would dispute, though, parts of the assertion that "Since 1914, an offshoot of Cadbury has been churning out a mass-market 'Fry's Turkish Delight' bar, which tastes kind of like taffy." The Cadbury's Turkish Delight bar that I tried once a long time ago (in the grip of Narnia obsession) didn't taste like taffy at all, and I had to spit the bite of it back out in disgust: it is covered with milk chocolate, and the filling is like a kind of purple jelly, presumably rose-flavored in theory but more like raspberry. Think one of those raspberry jelly chocolates, and you'll get the idea. Not nice at all. (Real turkish delight is much nicer.)
And this publicity page for what turns out to be called Cadbury's Fry's Turkish Delight has some real gems: "The Turkish Delight bar is positioned as a mystical, exotic treat that lets you escape from the everyday"; "Turkish Delight has been supported by strong advertising that dramtised [sic] the positioning, using the strapline 'Full of Eastern Promise'"; "Did you know? . . . The Fry's Turkish Delight bar is popular with slimmers, containing less than 8% fat (under 4g per bar)."
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As a candy-deprived kid, I loved references to sweets in literature (ex: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had me drooling in jealousy). I remember the Turkish Delight. I always thought of it as a kind of sweet drink.
ReplyDeleteI find the Cadbury's Fry's Turkish Delight quite tasty. Yes, the one with the obviously synthetic purple jelly (or jell-o in America) sort of substance that accounts for most of its mass.
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