Beton Helva (Maraş Branch)

In Trabzon the post office on Maraş Caddesi works as a landmark, and Beton Helva's branch is the shop directly across from it, in the Ortahisar district. That is how the company itself gives the address; no door number has been published.

Behind the name is a business that has been making halva since 1953, when Mustafa Özbak opened his own workshop in the Saruhan arcade on Uzun Sokak. The name came from customers: the workshop sat under an architecture office called Beton, so people described the address by it, and the look of halva spread across marble did the rest. The family later registered the name. Production moved to a larger plant at Çamlık in 2009 and the branches have been supplied from there since; the company states that it has deliberately kept the process traditional rather than industrialising it.

The range splits by season. Winter means tahini halva — plain, pistachio, hazelnut — in sizes from bulk blocks to 400-gram tubs, along with koz halva. Summer brings semolina halva and a fruit version, ice cream in plain, cocoa, chocolate-chip, lemon and strawberry, and şıra, an unfermented grape must drink. Tahini and grape, carob and mulberry molasses stay on the shelf year round.