The Disappearing Salepi Peddlers

Although it tastes nothing like it used to, salepi is undoubtedly the best hot drink you can enjoy on a cold winter’s day in Athens

Three or four decades ago there was no way could one visit Athens, or any other major Greek city, in wintertime without encountering a street vendor crying loudly “Salepi, salepi, hot salepi” as he wheeled a cart containing a hot samovar. In some cases peddlers would traipse around, sans cart, carrying a large steaming brass pot. At that time they served the thick, pungent, pleasantly soothing, off-white concoction using the same cup for all customers, after a casual wipe. Although, from a hygiene point of view, the few remaining salepi stands have markedly improved as they’ve switched to Styrofoam cups, the quality of the hot beverage has unfortunately suffered. In most cases, they now use powder from cultivated orchid root imported from Israel instead of the original, but now endangered, wild variety from the Pindos mountains. Some unscrupulous vendors will even resort to the unpleasant ersatz sort made from cornstarch, sugar, water and artificial flavoring. Salepi can be made from a variety of orchid roots, but in Greece it comes from a plant known as sernicovotano or “the male herb” – known elsewhere as the pink butterfly orchid – as folk tradition has it that a man who eats the bulb of the plant will father sons. In ancient Greek mythology Orchis (Greek for “testicle”) was the son of a nymph and a satyr who was condemned to become a plant after he raped a priestess during the Dionysian mysteries. Despite this unfortunate episode, most ancient Greek physicians, including Hippocrates, Aesculapius and Galen, recognized the pharmaceutical value of the plant, which helps with coughs, asthma and stomach pain. Paracelsus was probably wrong when he wrote “behold the Satyrion root, is it not formed like the male privy parts? No one can deny this. Accordingly magic discovered it and revealed that it can restore a man’s virility and passion,” as this belief is solely based on the shape of the plant.

Although it’s no substitute for Viagra, salepi, a word derived from the Arabic saḥlab‎, is one of the nicest things left behind by Ottoman rule in Greece. Made from dried orchid powder, milk and sugar and sprinkled with cinnamon and ground ginger, a cup of salepi is probably the best hot drink you can enjoy in Athens during the winter, especially on a cold day. Don’t forget that many centuries ago they drank the stuff as far away as in England, where it was known as saloop.