Beton Helva (Meydan Branch)

This is the Meydan branch — one of three shops in Ortahisar — of a Trabzon helva maker that has been in business since 1953. Its founder, Mustafa Özbak, was born in Akçaabat in 1932 and began as an apprentice in a confectioner's shop in Trabzon's Moloz quarter at the age of twelve. By the 1950s he had qualified as a master, left his employer and set up on his own, producing helva from 1953 in the Saruhan arcade on Uzun Sokak, with his elder brother Kazım handling the selling. The name has an accidental origin: an architecture practice called Beton occupied the floor above, so customers directed one another to 'the place under Beton', and the look of the halva spread on marble reinforced the association until the name was registered as a trademark. Production moved in 2009 from Uzun Sokak to a larger facility in Çamlık, where it continues. The range divides into summer helvas, winter helvas, tahini and grape molasses, ice cream, and şıra — an unfermented grape must drink served through the warm months. The ice cream is made with cow's milk gathered from the highland pastures above Trabzon and with sahlep. The company states that it has kept to traditional methods rather than moving to factory production.