A Century-Old Brands Association member trading since 1914, Davut Selim stone-grinds its dibek coffee and colors confections with natural plant dyes. Almond sugar, helva and lokum ship nationwide with card payment.
Best for Stone-ground arabica dibek coffee and Mardin almond sugar
Davut Selim is a member of Turkey's Century-Old Brands Association, a designation tied to continuous operation under one name for over a hundred years, and the business dates its own founding to 1914 in Mardin. Its coffee is stone-ground rather than machine-milled, an older processing method the business highlights specifically for its arabica dibek coffee, alongside the almond sugar, badem şekeri, that uses locally grown Mardin almonds as its base. The confectionery line also leans on natural, plant-based colorings rather than synthetic dyes, a detail that matters for a category, Turkish delight and colored sugar candy, that commonly relies on artificial color. Beyond the stone-ground coffee and almond sugar, the shop makes helva and lokum from the same regional repertoire, sold through an online store with card payment and a consulting hotline staffed from nine in the morning to nine at night. No individual founder is named on the site itself, an omission that stands out given the business's own emphasis on its century-plus continuity, though the Century-Old Brands membership functions as outside corroboration of the 1914 date rather than the company's claim standing alone.
Founder Halil Amca has made pistachio-oil bıttım soap in Artuklu, Mardin since 1995, continuing a dried-goods trade he entered at age nine. The shop also sells a seven-mixture Special Dibek Coffee and almond sugar.
Best for Seven-mixture Special Dibek Coffee and almond sugar
Halil Amca was born in Mardin in 1959 and started in the dried-goods trade at nine years old, continuing work passed down father to son in the family. The soap that now carries his reputation came later: he began producing bıttım soap, made from pure pistachio oil boiled with additive materials, in 1995, using his own resources and methods rather than an inherited recipe. That soap sits alongside two other regional specialities the shop makes itself, a Special Dibek Coffee sold as a seven-mixture blend, and almond sugar offered in several variations, including a cinnamon version and one marketed under the name ghost almond sugar. The business operates from a single storefront on Mardin's 1. Cadde in the Artuklu district, and pairs that physical shop with an online store promising two-day shipping across Turkey. The company's own materials date the operation to the 1960s, while Halil Amca's personal account places his start in dried goods a decade later, in 1968, before the soap line began in 1995, a gap the business does not reconcile on its own site, but one consistent with a family trade that predates the individually branded soap product it is best known for today.
Artuklu Telkari & Gumuscguluk is a Mardin silversmith producing handmade filigree (telkari) and gold-plated silver jewellery, from Trabzon-weave bracelets and belts to Urfa akitma necklaces, in business since 2008. It sells directly as the maker through its online shop with worldwide shipping.
Best for Trabzon-weave bracelets and Urfa akitma necklaces in handmade Mardin filigree
Sumer Telkari is a Midyat/Mardin silversmith crafting telkari filigree jewellery in 1000 and 925 silver, including handmade rings, bracelets and gold-plated pieces set with natural stones. Its full catalogue is sold through an online store with free shipping.
A boutique Syriac wine house in Midyat continuing the area's grape and winemaking tradition with home-made red and white wines. Orders are taken by phone and WhatsApp, and the producer lists its address at Akcakaya Mah. Kocamanoglu Cad. No:9/G in Midyat, Mardin.
Best for Home-made Syriac red and white wines from Midyat