Yes, I looked at Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahlab) and was surprised to see it was based on orchid tuber flour. But it went on to say "The popularity of salep [the Turkish name] in Turkey has led to a decline in the populations of wild orchids. As a result it is illegal to export true salep out of the country. Thus, many instant salep mixes are made with artificial flavoring." A quick (only not very quick for me!) scan of the Hebrew Wikipedia article (http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A1%D7%97%D7%9C%D7%91_%28%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%A7%D7%94%29) without recourse to dictionaries suggested that may be the case in Israel too. So I thought maybe I've never had the genuine article. But after making my own, I'm now wondering whether that is indeed the case.