Gümüşhane Pestil & Köme

Gümüşhane pestil and köme are a geographically-registered culinary heritage that carries the silver-mining town's name across Turkey through taste rather than metal.

History & Significance

The tradition reaches back to the Ottoman era, when records note that pestil was sent from Gümüşhane to the imperial palaces; in a mountain culture of long winters, where fruit was dried to be stored, pestil (fruit leather) and köme (walnuts coated in fruit pulp) served for centuries both as an energy-dense provision and as a gift custom. Produced by families on a household scale since the 1950s, the craft turned commercial around 1974 under brands such as Kral, becoming a year-round industry; today roughly 90 percent of Turkey's pestil and köme is made here, with annual output approaching five thousand tonnes.

Production & Flavour

At its heart are the region's sun-ripened mulberries and the walnuts grown in its fertile valleys. Mulberries are boiled down in large cauldrons into a molasses, thickened with starch and flour and dried in thin sheets to become pestil; when walnuts threaded on string are dipped repeatedly into this dark syrup and dried, the result is köme, colloquially called 'walnut sausage' (cevizli sucuk).

Visiting, Access & Tips

For the visitor, the real draw is following this process inside the producer shops of the central bazaar, tasting fresh pestil and choosing among rolls of köme. Its tourism value is woven into the Eastern Black Sea circuit. Trabzon-based tours whose inland leg links the Zigana Pass, the Torul Castle glass terrace and Karaca Cave almost invariably close with a pestil-köme shopping stop in central Gümüşhane; agencies favour it as a reliable, souvenir-serving break that does not tax the itinerary. A visit averages 30–60 minutes and is usually slotted into the afternoon on the return from Karaca Cave. Garlands of köme hung on string, colourful pestil rolls and glass-jar counters make the most photographed frames. Access is easy: the bazaar sits within walking distance of the town centre and the Trabzon–Erzurum highway (E97/D050), with square car parks nearby where coaches can pull in, while the large brands' roadside facilities offer bus access and step-free ground floors.

Route & Best Time

Since the shops open year-round, the best time is autumn and winter, when shelves are freshest after the mulberry and walnut harvest; peak season spans the summer plateau tours and the New Year gift period. The recommended route is to tour the Zigana–Torul–Karaca line in the morning and descend to the centre in the afternoon to end the trip on a sweet note at the pestil-köme bazaar.