Often when we are researching new tours, an unexpected nugget of information will pop up its head. Michael Duncan had just such an experience while researching his new walking tour Aldwych – before and beyond. You can join Michael for his tour in 16th June at 10.30 am, booking details are here.

When I was researching my new walk exploring the Aldwych, I came across a long lost London drink that I had never heard of.  Just on Fleet Street at the bottom of Bell Yard, I saw various references to a Saloop stall.

Saloop (also known as Salep or Salop) was generally sold between midnight and 7 in the morning.

It was a milky, soothing liquid. The Georgians believed it would settle the stomach after too many ales, cure hangovers in the morning, or set you up for the day ahead as a cheap, nutritious breakfast. Captain Cook also took it on his voyages to help sailors who became sick.

And it was cheap; for tuppence you could enjoy a bowl of saloop with a slice of bread and butter.  Henry Mayhew described it as popular among chimney sweeps and Hackney cab drivers.

But there is little consensus as to what its ideal ingredients should be.

The classic recipe involved grinding orchid tubers, mixing the powder to a paste, and adding milk and sugar. Orchid tubers had been a bit of a wonder drug since Roman times with their suggestive shape helping promote them as an aphrodisiac.

But there were lots of other options.  As an alternative to orchid tubers, ground sassafras bark or wood could be used. The sassafras tree is found in East Asia and North America, it’s a traditional ingredient in root beer.  Substituting this for orchid would give the drink a liquorice taste.

Saloop sellers also looked closer to home for their main ingredient, sometimes using the root of the cuckoo flower, which is native to Britain.

Adding cinnamon was also an option, as was mixing it with lemon juice or rose water.

However, the increasing popularity of tea and coffee, and the fact that Saloop was seen as a drink for the “lower orders” meant its popularity was a relatively brief 100 years from around the mid-1700s.

But you can still get it. Saloop was an import from the Ottoman Empire, and it can be found in Greece and Turkey as a drink, or a type of ice-cream called Dondurma.  It’s frozen (naturally) but is also very sweet and chewy.

And in London it’s been revived by some Turkish ice cream shops. So, after around 150 years saloop, at least in frozen form, is back!