Violets

I'm a big fan of floral flavours. I suspect that this is due to believing that Fry's chocolate & particularly their Turkish Delight were the summit of available chocolate. The turkish delight with it's rose flavour being an unbelievably exotic treat.
As time marched on  I found other turkish delights, with better rose flavours, but that small purple wrapped rectangle, still holds a place. Rose however much I love the flower & the flavour has been displaced by violet.
The ultimate being Heston Blumenthal's violet tartlets, that though is a story for a different time. As is my long list of violet creams (Charbonnel et Walker's dark enrobed are up at the top). I'm going to talk about drink (I know) as I have amongst my odd alcohols creme de violette, its a beautiful colour and a fine taste.
There are a number of cafe pousse that use it with cream, and whilst they look stunning & are quite tricky to make. It seems to play very nicely with pastis, which I usually use paraisian absinthe, only occasionally swapping out for Pernod as I prefer the formers dryness.

So when I spotted "Arsenic & Old Lace" I had to dive right in. It looks stunning too as you can see.

Here is the recipe as usual the numbers represent parts
6 Gin
2 Pastis (as I said I use la Fee parisian)
2 Creme de violette
1 vermouth
Stir with ice and serve straight up.

It's a very complex taste, with huge anise notes up front, then softening through the herbals into the florals at the end. Its not going to be a drink for everyone, but its a strong drink with complex flavours, if you can track down the violette its worth a go.