If you visit Bodrum, where Turkey’s most delicious tangerines are grown, try ice cream made with Bodrum tangerines. It is one of the primary preferences of tourists and visitors during the summer months.

Erman Aras, an organic additive-free ice cream producer, has been producing products without added sugar from tangerines for years under the name ‘Bodrum Heirloom’ in the garden left by his father.

In addition to different products such as Turkish delight, jam, molasses, chips, marmalade and soda, Aras also makes ice cream as sorbet (frozen dessert made with fruit, fruit puree, water and sugar without dairy products such as milk and cream). They produce about 25 products from Bodrum tangerines.

Pointing out that one of the most important places they use tangerine is ice cream, Aras noted that they make ice cream without milk and put some of the green form of tangerine in the ice cream.

Explaining that these flavours are very special, Aras said: ‘These are the flavours of our childhood. Since there are no additives in it, when you make it directly from tangerine juice, it is a product that you can safely feed to your children and you can enjoy it yourself.

“When we have such a beautiful product in Bodrum, why don’t we have tangerine sorbet in our businesses? I think we should use it. If we use it, we will ensure that all the gardens remain green. Garden owners will also take care of their gardens if their products are valued. What does this mean? We can have a Bodrum with plenty of oxygen and sustainable tourism for years to come.”

Stating that they also prepared the product with sticks for children to eat, Aras said: “We wanted to enjoy the taste of our childhood again. At least we

wanted to do justice to this geographically marked product in Bodrum. Because it is a very nice product. It contains 100 per cent tangerine juice and a little salep. We do not add sugar, we flavour it with apple. This is all we do. Local and foreign holidaymakers love it very much.”

Chef Tamer Özkan, the owner of a restaurant in Bodrum that uses geographically marked products and the President of the Federation of Anatolian Chefs, expressed that he liked the natural sorbet and thanked those who contributed.

US national Peter Mullin, who tasted the ice cream with his son, said: ‘It is very nice to find such geographical natural products in Bodrum. We also liked Bodrum mandarin very much.”