Unlike other ice cream, Turkish ice-cream is indeed sticky and does not melt easily, properties that make it ideal for the trick.

Turkish ice cream vendors dressed in traditional attires trying all kinds of tricks have caught your attention several times. No longer a treat limited to Turkey these vendors are found in almost every supermarket in big cities. Off course the unique selling point of the ice cream is the vendor indulging in a prank before handing over the cone to the customer but every marketing technique has its roots in one unique experiment. Also, ingredients of the dessert that makes the trick possible.

Turkish man who started ice cream trick in Istanbul

The practice of selling ice cream by playing pranks on customer was started in 2013 when an ice cream seller from Istanbul started attracting the attention of passerby with his tricks. A video of him went viral where he was seen elevating the simple act of cone-slinging to an art form.

The vendor used a metal pole to serve the ice cream, before trying some sleight-of-hand cone tricks. Ever since Turkish icecream sellers perfected the trick and it became customary to sell ice cream.

The ice cream cone and ice cream are glued to each other. When, the customer is stunned by the empty cone, he stacks the entire bucket of ice cream as another act of deception. This trick requires a lot of proficiency.

What makes Turkish ice cream the only kind for pulling pranks

Unlike other ice cream or gelato, Turkish ice-cream is indeed sticky and does not melt easily, properties that make it ideal for the trick.  The ice cream is tough, chewy in texture. Because of the high viscosity the ice cream seller needs to constantly stir the ice cream in the bucket during performance to that it softens to a fluid texture before the serving. In fact, it is the only ice cream that can be eaten with fork and knife.

The ingredients used for making Turkish ice cream is quite simple. Most of them have a few ingredients like goat’s milk, Salep, (blue stem powder) a spice called Yang frankincense and sugar.  Salep is actually powder made from rhizome of Orchid. This unique orchid grows only in Iran and Turkey. Salep is an expensive ingredient and over picking of these orchids have resulted in a major loss in the number of this endangered floral species.  It is now forbidden to export Salep from Turkey. Hence street style vendor replaces Salep with some other gummy synthetic ingredient to get the same texture.