Parma Violets

Parma Violets are a British violet-flavoured tablet confectionery manufactured by the Derbyshire company Swizzels Matlow,[1] named after the Parma violet variety of the flower. The sweets are hard, biconcave disc-shaped sweets, similar to the Fizzers product from the same company but without their fizziness. Swizzels Matlow have also released a line of Giant Parma Violets.

This article is about the sweets. For the plant, see Parma violet. For the band, see Palma Violets.
Parma Violets (small size)

Ingredients include sugar, stearic acid, modified starch, glucose syrup, and anthocyanin.[2]

Precursors

The petals of violets have long been used in herbalism for their medicinal properties, even mentioned by Dioscorides.[3] "Violet tables", a sugary lozenge flavoured with violets, was made before 1620.[4] During the 18th century, crushed violet petals, rosewater and sugar were combined to make an early type of confectionery known as flower pastry.[5] These could be used for flavouring a cake, or moulded into pastils and eaten as sweets.[6] In the Edwardian era, violet flavoured chocolate and liquor were used to relieve sickness.[7]

Description
Parma Violets cupcakes made with Swizzels cake mix. The vanilla fairy cake is topped with parma violet flavoured buttercream, and sprinkled with the sweeties

Parma Violets were created in 1946[8] by the Derbyshire company Swizzels Matlow.[1][9] They are sweets that are hard, biconcave discs, based on similar aniseed confectionery traditionally consumed in India after a spicy meal.[10] Their flavour has been described as sweet with an incredibly soapy or floral taste.[8][11] The current recipe includes sugar, stearic acid, modified starch, glucose syrup, and anthocyanin.[2]

In 2016, Swizzels Matlow released a special Parma Violets flavoured cheese to celebrate their 70th birthday.[12] Cocktails that replicate the flavour of the confectionery are also available in some UK bars.[13] Also, large bags of Parma Violets can be purchased from the official website in sizes up to 3kg,[14] alongside other online retailers.

  • 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.[15]
  • 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.[16][17]
  • A 2005 survey reported by The Guardian revealed Parma Violets to be the least popular sweet among the Millennial generation.[18]
gollark: How common are ridiculously unplanned failure modes? And how much do the humans actually get them right?
gollark: There is the problem that your thing might rely too much on simulation quirks.
gollark: If you can simulate the plane down to parts-level, which is admittedly probably quite hard (but computers inevitably get faster), you can just randomly generate failure cases.
gollark: One of those, probably.
gollark: Try simulating better.

See also

References
  1. Love Hearts maker Swizzels Matlow keeps clients sweet, Teena Lyons, Times online, 25 May 2008, accessed 3 May 2009
  2. Swizzels Matlow: Parma Violets Ingredients
  3. Font Quer, Pio (1995). Plantas Medicinales; el Dioscórides Renovado (15th ed.). Barcelona: Editorial Labor S.A. pp. 288–289. ISBN 84-335-6151-0.
  4. "Oxford English Dictionary". OED. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  5. "Using flowers in the French cooking from the 18th century | organic-e-publishing-international".
  6. "The Professed Cook; Or, the Modern Art of Cookery, Pastry, and Confectionary, Made Plain and Easy ... By B. Clermont [or Rather, Translated by Him from - Menon's "Les Soupers de la Cour"]. The Tenth Edition, Revised and Much Enlarged". T. Simpson. July 15, 1812 – via Google Books.
  7. Ostrom, Lizzie (October 22, 2015). Perfume: A Century of Scents. Random House. ISBN 9781473506084 – via Google Books.
  8. Miranda Larbi for Metro.co.uk (2016-07-15). "Someone's invented Parma Violet flavoured cheese". Metro. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  9. Salter, Jessica (November 19, 2011). "Dream factory: the story of a sweet company" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  10. Nozedar, Adele (September 4, 2014). Great British Sweets: And How To Make Them at Home. Random House. ISBN 9781448161218 – via Google Books.
  11. Britton, Karen (2016-08-01). "Love it or hate it? Retro sweets Parma Violets inspire new CHEESE". macclesfield. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  12. "Someone's invented Parma Violet flavoured cheese". July 15, 2016.
  13. Lovell, Lucy (February 11, 2017). "Love gin? Then you'll want to go to this gin festival in Levenshulme". men.
  14. "Parma Violets - 3kg- Swizzels". www.swizzels.com.
  15. Thunderball, 1961 Edition.
  16. "Album | Jealous of the Birds – Parma Violets".
  17. "Jealous of the Birds singer-songwriter Naomi Hamilton takes flight with debut album". The Irish News.
  18. Wainwright, Martin (March 5, 2005). "Sweets we loathe". The Guardian – via www.theguardian.com.
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