Parma Violets

Precursors

The petals of violets have long been used in herbalism for their medicinal properties, even mentioned by Dioscorides. "Violet tablets", sugary lozenges flavoured with violets, were made before 1620. During the 18th century, crushed violet petals, rosewater, and sugar were combined to make an early type of confectionery known as flower pastry. These could be used for flavouring a cake, or moulded into pastils and eaten as sweets. In the Edwardian era, violet-flavoured chocolate and liquor were used to relieve sickness.

Description

Parma Violets were created in 1946 by the Derbyshire company Swizzels Matlow. They are sweets that are hard, biconcave discs, based on similar aniseed confectionery traditionally consumed in India after a spicy meal. Their flavour has been described as sweet with a soapy or floral taste. The current recipe includes sugar, stearic acid, modified starch, glucose syrup, and anthocyanin.

In 2016, Swizzels Matlow released a special Parma Violets flavoured cheese, produced by the Cheshire Cheese Company to celebrate their 70th birthday. In 2019, Somerset cider company Brothers Cider launched a Parma Violet-flavoured cider. Also, large bags of Parma Violets can be purchased from the official website in sizes up to 3kg along with other online retailers.

In popular culture

• In Ian Fleming's James Bond series, hard candies very similar in description to Parma Violets are the favourite sweet of the supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld due to their breath freshening properties.
• The name of the British Indie pop band Palma Violets is derived from the Matlows confectionery. Irish singer Naomi Hamilton also released an album in 2016 named after the sweet.
• A 2005 survey reported by The Guardian revealed Parma Violets to be the least popular childhood sweet among its adult respondents.
• In British Pop Artist Stuart Semple's 'potion' paint line, Purple Haze is claimed to be Parma Violet Candy Scented.

References

References

1. Swizzels Matlow: ''Parma Violets Ingredients''
2. (1995). "Plantas Medicinales; el Dioscórides Renovado". Editorial Labor S.A..
3. "Oxford English Dictionary". Oxford University Press.
4. "Using flowers in the French cooking from the 18th century | organic-e-publishing-international".
5. (1812). "The Professed Cook: The Modern Art of Cookery, Pastry, and Confectionary, Made Plain and Easy". T. Simpson.
6. Ostrom, Lizzie. (2015). "Perfume: A Century of Scents". [[Hutchinson (publisher).
7. Larbi, Miranda. (2016-07-15). "Someone's made a Parma Violet flavoured cheese and it's confusing AF".
8. Salter, Jessica. (2011-11-19). "Dream factory: the story of a sweet company". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
9. Nozedar, Adele. (2014-09-04). "Great British Sweets: And How To Make Them at Home". [[Random House]].
10. Britton, Karen. (2016-08-01). "Love it or hate it? Retro sweets Parma Violets inspire new cheese". [[Macclesfield Express]].
11. Lovell, Lucy. (2017-02-11). "Love gin? Then you'll want to go to this gin festival in Levenshulme". [[Manchester Evening News]].
12. Duke, Simon. (2019-03-26). "Brothers launch Parma Violet cider and social media is going mad for it". [[ChronicleLive]].
13. "Parma Violets - 3kg- Swizzels".
14. Fleming, Ian. (1961). "[[Thunderball (novel)". [[Jonathan Cape]].
15. "Album | Jealous of the Birds – Parma Violets".
16. Campbell, Brian. (2016-05-06). "Jealous of the Birds singer-songwriter Naomi Hamilton takes flight with debut album". [[The Irish News]].
17. Wainwright, Martin. (2005-03-05). "Sweets we loathe". [[The Guardian]].
18. "HAZE - MEDIUM VIOLET, HIGH GRADE PROFESSIONAL ACRYLIC PAINT, BY STUART SEMPLE 100ML".