Violet cream showdown

On the left (in the case) is the Fortnum & Mason Violet cream on the right Hotel chocolat's offering.

Hotel Chocolat

This is a thin square of violet cream, liberally coated in 72% cocoa solid dark chocolate. The chocolate here is the main event, the violet cream being unfortunately overshadowed by it (the rose creams slightly less so). The fondant has a fairly stiff texture and is pretty much as the box says "scented" with violets. On the whole whilst I happy to eat these I'd rather have something with a bit more punch in the violet.

Fortnum & Mason

This is a more traditional type of cream a good solid block of cream enrobed in dark chocolate (60% cocoa solid this time). For me the balance is better, the chocolate provides the right amount of bitterness to foil the violet cream, which this time has a strong floral flavour. Its more harmonious than the hotel chocolat square with a long tail of rich chocolate and violet after.

Out of these two its the Fortnum & Mason for me, but I'm going to have to try it against the Charbonnel et Walker violet creams, which hold first place in my memory.

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.