So while you can look to the other answers for the reason Lewis picked Turkish Delight over say, toffee, keep in mind that this was never supposed to be a realistic impression of how good Turkish Delight tastes. You can always tell them if you've lived long enough in Narnia something about their eyes.' 'He had the look of one who has been with the Witch and eaten her food. This is apparently something she's done before, probably with other foods, as Beaver specifically calls out her food in connection with treachery. Probably the Queen knew quite well what he was thinking for she knew, though Edmund did not, that this was enchanted Turkish Delight and that anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and would even, if they were allowed, go on eating it till they killed themselves. The reason Edmund forgets his manners (and everything but stuffing as much candy in his mouth as fast as humanly possible) is not the fact that Turkish Delight is the greatest confection in existence, but the White Witch's magic:ДЄt last the Turkish Delight was all finished and Edmund was looking very hard at the empty box and wishing she would ask him whether he would like some more.

So it was essentially both a cultural delicacy at the time, and as the article speculates, likely something of specific connection to Lewis himself. It's far too long and detailed to include though, so I recommend checking it out directly if you want to go deeper. She goes far more in depth into the matter, including pointing out Lewis' fascination with Turkish culture ( Aslan is apparently the Turkish word for Lion, for example). The article I've referenced summarizes and cites from an article written by Cara Strickland. Why Was Turkish Delight the Ultimate Temptation in C.S. Edmund isnвЂ™t just asking the witch for candy, heвЂ™s essentially asking her for Christmas, too.

When the White Witch asks Edmund what heвЂ™d like best to eat, itвЂ™s entirely possible that Lewis was answering for him: the candy that would be most difficult and expensive to obtain.

Rationing extended to timber, which made Christmas trees harder to come by, and confectionery rationing didnвЂ™t end until February of 1953-still well before the end of sugar rationing later that year. It makes sense to draw a parallel between this dismal fantasy and the stark realities of wartime. In Narnia, it is вЂњalways winter and never Christmas,вЂќ a product of the White WitchвЂ™s evil magic. It makes sense that Turkish delight would have been on LewisвЂ™s brain as he crafted a book where Christmas features as a main theme. Perhaps this is why it became so significant to Lewis? As he welcomed refugee children into his Oxford neighborhood, he thought back on the candies and holidays that had marked his own childhood. Of course just as costs had gone down, the outbreak of World War II and its subsequent rationing meant that the candy was harder than ever to come by. Thus, if you wanted real Delight, you had to import it from Turkey, which got expensive fast, so that it became a marker of either status or indulgence in much the way the way coffee had a century earlier. Made from a confection of rose oil and sugar, the candy is simple on paper, but proves extremely difficult to make вЂ“ no matter how Western Europeans tried, they never quite replicated it. As with so many things in pop culture, the answer lies in the context, and since weвЂ™re living in a beautiful future, an academic article has stepped in to tell us all about the importance of Delight.ДЄccording to food critic Cara Strickland, the Turkish sweet cast an intoxicating spell over late-Victorian England. The question of Turkish Delight often becomes still more perplexing when a young Narnia fan actually eats the stuff, and finds that it does not live up to EdmundвЂ™s rapturous praises. From an article a couple years ago regarding this exact question:

Also consider that food in general was less sugar packed than many of the options we have today, so many foods at the time that we might consider 'disappointing' would have had a much different impression of the people of their time. Rationings were in effect in WWII England, and Turkish Delights were a particular delicacy that was popular at the time and hard to come by. It's helpful to consider in context of the time.

Turkish delight narnia quotes