Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Violet Pastilles

You've seen them at gourmet groceries and the like: the little oval tins with purple flowers adorning the tops. I was introduced to the Flavigny Violet Pastilles as an undergraduate and have been vaguely obsessed with them since.

I know. They taste like perfume jawbreakers. But I love them, and I'm now eating them for the first time in ages. Since we moved to BRU, the gourmet options have been, shall we say, limited. What we wouldn't give for a Whole Foods, or a Trader Joe's. There is a little gourmet wine and chocolate store, but they're waaaay overpriced, and only really useful when you need such an item and don't have time to get it properly delivered to your home.

Willow and I were in sucha pinch earlier today, though, when we noticed that they had a table displaying both the Flavigny Pastilles and some of our favorite candies not available in the states ( I am obsessed with the Aero mint chocolate bar, which I've until now only been able to purchase in Canada). So I casually picked up an Aero, and a tin of violet pastilles, and sauntered casually to the counter. It was going to be a good afternoon.

I wolfed down the chocolate bar by the time we had gotten to the car, but I am savoring my pastilles, which, years ago, inspired the following song:

To the tune of "Cruella De Vil"

The Violet Pastilles,
The Violet Pastilles,
They taste just like flowers,
yet that's not how they feel.
But the feel is not the source of their ap-PEAL!
They're Violet, they're Violet Pastilles...

2 comments:

Alexandre said...

Those pastilles are easy to find, here in Montreal. We don't have Whole Foods or Trader Joe's but we do have a great diversity in terms of tasty items.
We also have intellectually engaged students who care about learning.

Should be fun moving to the U.S., again.

Anonymous said...

I found them at a Food Emporium grocery store in Greenwich, CT. I was like, hey... what is this?So I bought them, and they are, as you say perfume jaw breakers, but for some reason, they taste good...

I love those Aero Bars too. I see them in the mall candy stores all the time, and in other flavors, I've only ever had the mint though.

So, you might like to try one of those candy shops in the mall.