Spring has truly arrived when pretty, little, purple violets pop up around the yard. Their diminutive size and delicate beauty make them easy to overlook. But there’s something special about these tiny little harbingers of spring.
“The modest Violet is a most welcome flower … Blooming, as it does, at a time when most other subjects are … not yet showing flower, it is all the more appreciated, and doubly so when it ‘droops its soft and bashful brow, and from its heart sweet incense fills the air’.” writes Howard Crane in The Book of the Pansy, Viola and Violet. “For, undoubtedly, much of the esteem in which these modest flowers are held is due to their delicious scent.”
While I simply refer to them as “violets”, they are part of a large group of flowering plants―the Viola genus within the Violaceae family. There are over 680 different species with the Viola genus―this one is Viola odorata. The Viola odorata goes by a number of common names including sweet violet, wood violet and common violet. It is listed as the “Eurasian Sweet Violet” in iNaturalist.
Crane continues “The violet in its various forms holds quite a place in poetry, due, in no small measure, to the modesty with which this flower is indelibly associated, owing no doubt to the lowly habit of growth and the retiring appearance of the plant with its drooping flowers.”
One example, the popular nursery verse “Roses are red, Violets are blue, …” comes to mind. I might argue that most violets are purple, or well… violet, but I can appreciate it’s much easier to rhyme with “blue”.
Crane illustrates his point with a quote from the poem To a Violet by poet John Bowring.
“Sweet flower! Springs earliest loveliest gem!
While other flowers are idly sleeping,
Thou rearest thy purple diadem;
Meekly from thy seclusion peeping.
Thou, from thy little secret mound,
Where diamond dew-drops shine above thee,
Scatterest thy modest fragrance round;
And well may Nature’s Poet love thee! ”
Wow, who knew this modest, little flower could inspire such a grand word-picture?
Interestingly, the lowly violet also makes the occasional appearance in fine art. For instance, the highly-regarded English artist, John Everett Millais, painted one of his most famous paintings, The Violet’s Message, in 1854. It depicts a young woman removing a bouquet of violets from the envelope she is opening.
The significance of the violets in Millais’ painting can be explained by the Victorians fascination with floriography or the language of flowers. I’ve written about this topic in my previous blog posts Say It with Spring Flowers and Say It with Summer Flowers. In fact, the violet, which was known to symbolize “modesty”, is one of the featured spring flowers. 
In researching this blog post, I was surprised to discover violets inspired not only poets, painters and authors, but also chefs.
According to Debbie Whittaker, a food writer and culinary herbalist, in her 2000 article The Culinary Violet for the American Violet Society, “Viola (violets, violas and pansies) are among the most popular edible flowers in America–and with good reason. All flowers are beautiful, but viola are easy to grow and are among the few flowers that actually taste good, too. The simple addition of a few brilliant blooms transforms any dish into an elegant presentation. Both the flowers and leaves in fresh and dried forms have been standard fare in Europe and other areas in the world since before the 14th century. Fresh flowers are most often used for garnishing and crystallizing”. She goes on to share a recipe for Crystalized Viola.
Turns out, the internet offers up a number of different recipes for making candied violets. They all made it sound so easy that I decided to give it a try. I followed the instructions for “Crystallising Violets in Six Easy Steps” from The Complete Flower Craft Book (see More Info).
As stressed by the authors, “First and foremost, only use flowers that you are certain are edible … There are many species of violets – the ones to choose for crystallising are the purple or white flowers of Viola odorata (sweet violet).”
Crystalizing violets is essentially a two-step process. First you paint the bloom with a sticky coating and then you dust it with fine sugar. The authors offer two options for coating the bloom―a gum arabic solution or whisked egg whites. I chose to use the gum arabic solution made with 1 tablespoon of gum arabic (aka acacia gum) powder, 3 tablespoons of water and a drop of rose water. After thoroughly mixing the ingredients, the mixture requires about three hours to turn into a syrup.
In the meantime, I gathered together the tools and materials needed including parchment paper, mini sieve, measuring cup, spoon, tweezers, food-safe paintbrush, scissors, toothpicks and bowls.
Then I picked and prepped my violets. As with most flowers, it’s best to pick them early in the morning after the dew has dried and before the sun is in full force. Mist the flowers with a little water if they need to be washed―don’t dunk or soak them. Let them dry completely before proceeding. It’s important to work quickly because violet blooms will wilt in no time.
I tried a few different techniques before deciding my self-locking tweezers worked best. By picking up the violet at the top of the stem, I was able to maneuver the delicate bloom through the rest of the process with minimal contact.
Use a small, food-safe paintbrush to coat the violet, top and bottom, with the gum arabic solution. Gently shake off any excess. I found resting the bloom along the gentle slope of my bowl made it easier to paint the petals.
Next, prepare to dust the coated violet with sugar. The recipe calls for “caster sugar” which I learned is also called superfine sugar or baker’s sugar. It is sugar with a consistency between granulated and powdered sugar. Other recipes I’ve seen call for regular granulated or confectioner’s sugar. Some experts recommend simply pulsing granulated sugar a few times in a food processor or blender until it’s a fine powder. Note to self: Grinding a little granulated sugar would be much cheaper than buying caster sugar.
I found it most effective to use a mini sieve to sprinkle sugar onto the violet. The tweezers allowed me to turn the flower over and around to get sugar on all the surfaces without touching them.
After the bloom has been dusted with sugar, place the bloom on a piece of parchment paper and gently snip off the stem.
Repeat the process for each violet bloom.
Let the sugared violets dry for at least 24 hours. Handle the dried violets with care―they are quite brittle and can break easily.
Whittaker wraps up her recipe by instructing “When the flowers are COMPLETELY dry, place them into a covered glass jar. Seal and keep in a cool dark place until used to decorate cakes, pudding, ice cream, and other desserts”.
Other authors suggest using candied violets to decorate candy, chocolates or other sweets. One suggested adding candied violets to drinking water, sparkling wine or champagne. I decided to get all fancy and sprinkle a few candied violets and pomegranate arils on my breakfast yogurt. To be honest, the candied violets looked more impressive than they tasted―they added a little pop of sweetness with a slight floral taste.
As is often the case, my research into candied violets led me down the proverbial rabbit hole. I was intrigued to learn that Demel, a famous pastry shop and chocolaterie established in 1786 in Vienna Austria sells candied violets. The delicacies are featured in the Demel Wien Instagram posts shown below. Notice the commentary on the posts: “Indulge in the same royal charm that captivated Sisi’s tastebuds with our Candied Violets.” and “The perfect match. Empress Sisi’s favorite Candied Violets alongside delicate candied Rose Petals.”
The mention of Empress Elisabeth (aka Sisi) caught my attention. On the Demel shopping site, the listing for Kandierte Veilchen (candied violets) explains “Empress Elisabeth herself was a fan of the hand-picked, sugar-coated violet blossoms. Mr. Demel personally delivered them regularly to the Hofburg.” I have no reason to doubt this claim but it did set me down a path to learn more.
As a result, I’ve become enamored with The Empress, a German historical drama television series based on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. The series was released on Netflix in 2022 and 2024 so I’m (once again) late to the popular TV party but I’ve just finished watching the first two seasons. I would highly recommend it to anyone else who missed the original hype and enjoys historical fiction. Unfortunately, the series does not tell the entire story so you will have to wait for the third and final season which was announced earlier this year. Or, better still, read one of the many great books about Empress Elisabeth.
Circling back to my original quest, I’m disappointed to report that candied violets were not mentioned in the TV series nor in the books I scanned. Regardless, the entire endeavor was quite educational and most entertaining!
More Info
Previous blog posts mentioned in this blog post include:
. Say It with Spring Flowers
. Say It with Summer Flowers.
The following books and articles were consulted in the writing of this blog post:
. The Book of the Pansy, Viola and Violet by Howard Crane, published in 1908, which is available here on Internet Archives
. The History and Cultivation of Scented Violets by Roy E Coombs, published in 1981, which is available here on Internet Archives
. The Culinary Violet article by Debbie Whittaker, published in 2000, for the American Violet Society
. The Complete Flower Craft Book by Susan Conder, Sue Phillips and Pamela Westland, published in 1993, which is available here on Internet Archives
. The Reluctant Empress biography by Brigitte Hamann, published in 1986, which is available here on Internet Archives
. The Secret of an Empress by Countess Zanardi Landi, published in 1915, which is available here on Internet Archives.
See the Demel Wien website or Instagram account, to learn more.
See the Empress Netflix website or Instagram account, to learn more.
See Wikipedia Commons for more info about The Violet’s Message by John Everett Millais.
Today’s Takeaways
1. The Eurasian Sweet Violet (Viola odorata) is a welcome sign of spring.
2. Violets have inspired poets, painters, authors and chefs.
3. The blooms of a violet can easily be crystalized to make a dainty, edible delicacy known as candied violets.
