Birdhouse Tea Company – Parma Violets
This black tea blend is inspired by Swizzle’s Parma Violets, which, incidentally, were voted the number one most disliked sweet in a 2005 poll. This seems a bit harsh on the old Parma Violet. It wouldn’t be my number one sweet selection (mostly because it isn’t chocolate and chocolate will always be my first choice) but it really isn’t the worst sweet in the world. Not when there are Fisherman’s Friends and flying saucers out there.
(Fisherman’s Friends only ranked 11th most disliked sweet and flying saucers didn’t make the Top 20 at all. Meanwhile, delectable peanut brittle and tasty Caramac were ranked 8th and 9th so clearly the people polled were a bunch of lunatics.)
The sweets were named after a type of violet called – probably unsurprisingly to anyone who isn’t me – the Parma Violet. I honestly had no idea. Obviously, I knew the ‘violet’ bit of the name referred to the flower but I thought the ‘Parma’ bit was exclusive to the sweets. It’s not as weird as knowing that there’s an actual flowering plant called the marshmallow but it’s still weird. (Marshmallows would probably make it onto my disliked sweet list, actually. I have no time for foam pillows masquerading as treats.)
So what, you may ask, of the tea? Well, happily, Birdhouse Tea Company’s Parma Violets tea is really rather delicious. I don’t have any similarly named confectionary about the place but from what I can remember, this tea captures the taste perfectly. It’s also rather reminiscent of lavender tea which – as I am rather fond of such things – is entirely welcome.
The packet describes this tea as “sweet and floral” and it is not wrong. The floweriness I was expecting but the sweetness of this blend came as a bit of a surprise, given that the tea blend contains just black tea, violet flavouring and purple mallow flowers. (And I’m pretty sure you can’t have sweeteners in food flavourings without declaring them.) Nonetheless, there it is. A little suggestion of candy-coating in amongst the blossoms. If you’re disposed to adding sugar to your brew, I reckon that Parma Violets would accommodate this quite happily.
Given the divisive nature of the confectionary version of Parma Violets, Birdhouse Tea Company have probably tapped into something of a niche market with this tea blend. It was a bit of a risk but I’m glad they did it. Parma Violets tea is absolutely delightful.
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