Saloop

Saſſafras is a warm ingredent, and where it is not made too ſtrong, ſo as to make the head ach, is a very good ſubstitute for breakfaſt, and as ſuch I recommend it to thoſe who do not care to be at the trouble to make any other drinks; this is the chief ingredient of what is called ſaloup, and ſold about the ſtreets in the morning.

The little sweep would have his saloop smoking hot—and there was the common appliance of a charcoal grate—regaling himself with the savory steam until the mess was cool enough for him to swallow; […] his white teeth the while gleaming from his sooty visage as he gleefully licked his lips at the warm and oily breakfast.

Sassafras officinale, the Laurus sassafras, was introduced into Europe through France, and both wood and bark supply a volatile oil. […] The infusion of it was formerly much sold about the streets of London, at daybreak, modified with milk and sugar, under the name of Saloop, and chiefly made from this wood, though the true Saloop or Salep is an Orchis.

Saloop was originally made from salop, the root of Orchis mascula, a common plant of our meadows, the tubers of which being cleaned and peeled, were lightly browned in the oven. […] Saloop is stated to contain the largest proportion of nutritious matter in the smallest space; and when boiled it was much used in this country before the introduction of tea and coffee, and their greatly reduced prices. The pretended saloop, sold at stalls in the streets within memory, was a decoction of sassafras.

As an alternative to coffee – in periods such as the beginning of the eighteenth century, when it became expensive – a patron might request saloop.

He [Charles Lamb] reveals some of their tastes – their likes and dislikes, their humour. And, characteristically, he does so in a digression, that turns out not to be a digression at all, about saloop, a drink made from 'the sweet wood yclept sassafras' and sold at roadside stalls throughout London.

The tubers of one [orchid] species, Orchis mascula, produce a flour called salep, which was made into a drink known as "saloop" in 18th-century London, as an alternative to coffee (Charles Lamb thought it the ideal breakfast for chimney sweeps). Salep is a Turkish word with an even more precise derivation (it's from the Arabic for "fox's testicles"). Despite this, the Turks still use it to make a strange elastic ice cream, eaten with a knife and fork, which carries a pungent aftertaste compared by one commentator to the scent of "goats on a rainy day". Salep ice cream is so popular that O. mascula is now a protected species in Turkey.

SALOOP Rhagodia hastata R. Br. Chenopodiaceae / Deep-green perennial subshrub, usually about 25 cm high, with stems to 75 cm long, woody at base.