Aladdin is an online Turkish food shop. It mostly carries Middle Eastern snacks like baklava, Turkish delights, Dubai chocolate, tea and coffee, and even specialty kitchenware. Aladdin sent me this snack box to review, but they have not compensated me for my review.
Selection
Aladdin’s online shop is packed with goodies. The main categories are Baklava & Delights (self-explanatory), Chocolates (bars, cake, wafers, cookies, and of course Dubai chocolate), Super Food (eg. dates, honey, dried fruits and nuts, supplements), Tea & Coffee, Jewelry & Beauty (jewellery, incense, soaps, prayer beads), and Kitchen & Decoration (coffee and tea pots, spices, rugs, lamps, kitchen equipment, wall art).
The prices are not the cheapest. For example, Koska Tahini is $24 at Aladdin and just $7.99 at Turkish Bazaar, for the same 300g package. A 50-pack of dried peppers costs $27 at Aladdin and a 25-pack of peppers costs $9.99 at Turkish Bazaar. So for raw ingredients and spices I would probably shop elsewhere. But the snack selection really shines at Aladdin and there are lots of specialty snacks you can’t find elsewhere.
It’s also convenient to be able to shop for all these things in one place and have it delivered straight to you. Even in my mid-sized Canadian city, there aren’t any stores that specialize in Turkish food, so an online shop like this one is a big help.
At the moment there isn’t a way to filter for vegan-only options on the site, but Aladdin was nice enough to put together a plant-based snack box for me to review. Maybe in the future they can add a vegan filter to the shop.
By the way, if you’re a Canadian who loves Turkish food as I do, check out my Turkish Bazaar review for another Canadian Turkish food store!
Shipping & Delivery
On the Canadian site, shipping is free for orders of $95 or more. I didn’t receive package tracking but I think you will if you order from the website.
The snacks came packed in a little cardboard box. The packaging was done securely and the products were well-cushioned in bubble wrap.
However, the tahini halva container got damaged in-transit and some of the oil from the tahini leaked out over the rest of the contents of the box. Luckily, it was still fine to eat, but just a word of warning if you order some of the more fragile/messy food items.
My Aladdin Box
Let’s go over my thoughts on each of the three items I received from Aladdin:
Pomegranate Tea
Malak | Premium Pomegranate Tea
I’d heard of Turkish pomegranate tea before, but never had an opportunity to try it until now.
And I wish I’d tried it earlier, because this stuff is DELICIOUS.
Pomegranate tea is caffeine-free, and this particular canister is sugar-free too! The only ingredients are ground pomegranate peels, pomegranate seeds, zereลk grape (aka barberries), and stevia.
The instructions are to mix 1โ2 teaspoons of the pomegranate tea into 6 oz (180 mL) of hot water. That’s it, super easy.
The brewed tea is greatโlightly sweet, very tangy, a strong fruity flavourโand with some bits of chewy pomegranate.
But my favourite way to consume this?
Literally just eating the pomegranate tea granules straight out of the canister.
Seriously, don’t judge me, it’s so good. The chewiness of the pomegranate peel + the tangy powder reminds me of more natural-tasting sour patch kids. And the fact that this is sugar-free makes me feel less guilty about eating it by the spoonful. ๐คญ
Turkish Delight
Lokum Atolyesi | Plain and Rose Flavored Turkish Delight
Turkish delights (also called lokum) are probably the most famous Turkish sweet. And because they’re made with just starch and sugar, they’re usually naturally vegan!
These plant-based Turkish delights come in a mix of two flavours: plain and rosewater. The plain ones are light yellow and taste… well, plain… basically just like doughy sugar. The rosewater ones can be distinguished by a pink colour and their rose flavour is extremely strong.
Now I do like a bit of rose flavour in my sweetsโboth my Vegan Muhallebi and Pekmez Cookie recipes use rose petals, and I’ve made my Perok Cake using rose jam beforeโbut these rose-flavoured Turkish delights were overwhelmingly fragrant.
They were also coated in way too much cornstarch. I don’t like my Turkish delight to have such a powdery mouthfeel. Otherwise, I liked the texture of these little gummies. They were really sticky and chewy, and not dry.
Overall Kevin enjoyed the Turkish delights more than I did. His only feedback was that they could be a little sweeter (totally opposite of me btw, I thought they were a bit too sweet already).
Tahini Halva
Servet | Fresh Tahini Halva with Pistachio
I am a big halva fan. Halva is popular across the Middle East and it is usually a sweet, dense, solid block made from a creamy paste like butter or tahini.
One of the most common varieties is tahini halva (tahin helvasi) which, at its simplest, can be made with just tahini and sugar.
I have my own recipe for making Tahini (aka Sesame Paste), and I’ve even tried my hand at homemade halva using Pekmez (Turkish Molasses).
This tahini halva tasted quite premium. It’s studded with pistachios throughout, and is super dense and rich.
The ingredients list is simple: tahini, date syrup concentrate, pistachio, gypsophila juice (a type of plant flavouring), and lemon juice. I also love that it’s sweetened with date syrup, no sugar. The best kind of halva!