Booza is a stretchy, chewy frozen dessert from the Levant, best known from Damascus in Syria and also loved in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. It gets its elastic texture from sahlab (salep), a flour ground from orchid tubers, and mastic, a piney tree resin, and it's traditionally pounded with wooden pestles instead of churned. The word itself means "ice cream" in Arabic, which is why booza is often sold as Arabic ice cream.
Pull a spoon out of booza and it stretches like taffy before it lets go. If you've never had it, that first spoonful really does surprise you. At Elaka, a lot of our flavors draw on the Middle East, from our Rose to our Q'ahwa coffee, so booza is a dessert we love talking about. Here's what it is, how it's made, where to find the famous version and how it relates to the other great frozen desserts of the region.
What makes booza stretchy?
There are two ingredients behind the stretch, and you won't find either in most American ice cream.
- Sahlab (salep). This is a flour made from the dried tubers of certain orchids. It's rich in a starch-like fiber called glucomannan, which holds a lot of water and gives the mixture body and chew. The same ingredient makes sahlab, the warm, thick milk drink sold across the Middle East in winter.
- Mastic. This is a resin from mastic trees, grown on the Greek island of Chios. It adds elasticity, plus a flavor that's piney, a little cedar-like and slightly floral. Some people find it odd at first and then can't stop eating it.
Together, they give booza a texture that's dense, smooth and elastic, and it holds its shape far longer than regular ice cream on a hot day.
How booza is made
Classic booza starts with milk, sugar, sahlab and ground mastic. Some versions add qishta (a thick clotted cream) for extra richness. The mixture goes into a chilled metal drum, and instead of churning it, the maker pounds it, over and over, with a long wooden pestle, stretching and folding it as it freezes. That pounding is what develops the texture. It's hard, rhythmic work.
Once it's ready, the booza is pulled out in a long rope, stretched again, and usually rolled in a thick coat of chopped pistachios. Rose water and orange blossom water are common flavorings, and so is plain milk, which lets the mastic shine.
Bakdash: the most famous booza in the world
If booza has a home, it's Bakdash, an ice cream parlor in the covered Al-Hamidiyah Souq in the Old City of Damascus. Sources disagree on exactly when it opened, with dates given from 1885 to 1895, but it's been pounding booza for well over a hundred years. Its pistachio-covered booza is famous across the Arab world, and today Syrian booza makers have carried the craft to places like Amman, London and the US.
How old booza itself is, nobody can say for sure. Food historian Mary Iโรผฦยฑn traces it to the 15th-century Levant, and it's thought to share roots with Turkish dondurma. One popular story says early Damascus booza was frozen with snow brought down from Mount Hermon, but that's tradition rather than documented history.
Booza's cousins across the Middle East
Booza is one member of a family of frozen desserts that stretches from the Levant to Iran.
Dondurma (Turkey)
Maraโรผ dondurma, named for the city of Kahramanmaraโรผ, is booza's closest relative. It uses the same salep and mastic, but vendors knead it with long metal paddles instead of pounding it with wood. It's firm enough that some shops serve it with a knife and fork, and street sellers are famous for playing tricks with the cone before they hand it over.
Bastani sonnati (Iran)
Persian ice cream is golden with saffron, perfumed with rose water and packed with pistachios. It often has small flakes of frozen cream folded in, and some versions add salep for a little chew. It's often served pressed between two thin wafers.
Faloodeh (Iran)
Faloodeh is a semi-frozen dessert of thin rice noodles in rose water syrup, sharpened with lime juice and sometimes sour cherry. It's often eaten alongside bastani, and it may be one of the oldest frozen desserts still eaten today, though its exact age is more legend than record.
See how these compare with kulfi, gelato, paletas and more in our pillar guide, Ice Cream Around the World: 15 Frozen Desserts Every Food Lover Should Try.
The flavors of the Middle Eastern dessert table
Spend time around Middle Eastern desserts and you'll notice the same flavors coming back again and again: rose water, orange blossom water, pistachio, mastic, cardamom and dates. They show up in milk puddings like muhallabia, in syrup-soaked pastries like baklava and knafeh, in date-filled cookies like maamoul, and in the coffee served alongside them.
That coffee matters. Across the Arabian Peninsula and the wider Arab world, qahwa (Arabic coffee) is brewed with cardamom and poured in small cups as a sign of hospitality, and it's traditionally served with dates. In 2015, Arabic coffee was added to UNESCO's list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It's a ritual of welcome as much as a drink.
Where Elaka fits in
To be clear, we don't make booza. Our frozen treats aren't made with sahlab or mastic, and they aren't pounded or stretchy. What we share with the booza makers of Damascus is a love for the flavors, and two of our flavors are tributes to the Middle Eastern table.
- Rose: rose water balanced with almond, a flavor the Middle East has perfected over centuries. If you love rose booza or the rose water in bastani, start here. It's gluten-free and contains nuts.
- Q'ahwa (Coffee): inspired by Arabic coffee and its ritual of bringing people together. We combine coffee with cardamom and dates, the way qahwa is so often served. The coffee is a custom Ethiopian roast from Work Bench Roasters in Wendell, North Carolina, enhanced with coffee syrup from Markola in Durham. It's gluten-free.
Two more are worth knowing. Pineapple Hibiscus Sorbet is our tribute to Arabian souks, with fresh pineapple juice, hibiscus, cardamom and a pistachio-habanero brittle. Sulaimani Sorbet is black tea, cardamom and lemon, the tea served after a feast in Muslim households across South India and the Middle East. Both are vegan.
Want the full Middle Eastern spread? Pair Rose and Q'ahwa with Kulfi (saffron, cardamom and pistachio) in a 4-pack. Every pack ships frozen on dry ice; see how shipping works.
Where to try booza
Outside the Middle East, your best bet is a Syrian, Lebanese or Palestinian sweet shop, or an ice cream parlor in a city with a large Arab community. Some Middle Eastern grocery stores also stock it frozen. When you find it, order it plain or with pistachio first, so you can really taste the mastic. And if you'd rather make it yourself, look for real salep and Chios mastic from a Middle Eastern grocer. Real salep is pricey and can be hard to find, so many home recipes use cornstarch or other thickeners and accept a little less stretch.
Frequently asked questions
Why is booza stretchy?
Booza is stretchy because it's made with sahlab (salep), a flour from orchid tubers that binds water and adds chew, and mastic, a tree resin that adds elasticity. Pounding the mixture as it freezes develops the stretch even further.
Is booza the same as Turkish ice cream?
They're close cousins. Both use salep and mastic and both stretch, but booza comes from the Levant and is traditionally pounded with wooden pestles, while Turkish dondurma is kneaded with metal paddles and is usually even firmer.
What does mastic taste like?
Mastic tastes resinous and slightly piney, with hints of cedar and a light floral note. In booza it's subtle, giving the milk a clean, fresh, slightly woodsy flavor.
What is Arabic ice cream called?
Arabic ice cream is usually called booza, which literally means "ice cream" in Arabic. The traditional Levantine style is the stretchy kind made with sahlab and mastic and rolled in pistachios.
What are some popular Middle Eastern desserts?
Popular Middle Eastern desserts include booza, baklava, knafeh, muhallabia (milk pudding with rose or orange blossom water), maamoul (date-filled cookies) and Persian bastani. Many share the same flavors: rose water, pistachio, cardamom and dates.
Can't get to Damascus this week? Bring a little of the Middle Eastern dessert table home with Rose and Q'ahwa, put the coffee on and invite someone over. Start making memories today.
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