Elgani Ezmecizade

About Elgani Ezmecizade

Elgani Ezmecizade is a family confectioner at the Kizlaragasi Han in the Kemeralti bazaar, making traditional almond, walnut and pistachio pastes. The family dates its confectionery tradition to 1853 and says the pastes have been made by five generations and sold at Kizlaragasi for about 30 years. According to a September 2026 Culinary Backstreets profile, the Harmanda family traces its craft to 19th-century Burdur, where their ancestors made akide hard candies, and brought it to Izmir in the 1980s with a four-square-metre shop in Kemeralti. The article describes the shop as small in scale. Cenk Harmanda is in charge of production, while Gorkem Harmanda looks after the relationship with the people who taste the products; their father, Erhan Cem Harmanda, developed the family’s approach through studies with the Faculty of Agriculture at Dokuz Eylul University. The same article says the family visits almond growers in Datca at harvest, sources pistachios from Gaziantep, uses bitter almonds from old trees in Acipayam and does not grind its pastes completely smooth, keeping some of the texture of the nuts. The range on its own website includes pistachio, almond, walnut and peanut pastes, sugar-free and gluten-free versions, nuts and gift packs. Visit Izmir lists it among the Kemeralti food businesses holding the Selluka certificate from the Izmir Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.