Are Parma Violets Vegan? (And How Many Calories?)

Yes. The Parma
Violet rolls we stock are vegan, and they are halal. There is no gelatine, no dairy and no
beeswax in the declaration.

Why a sweet like this is usually vegan

Parma Violets are made by pressing powdered sugar with a binder and a flavouring, rather than
setting anything with gelatine. Nothing in that process needs an animal product.

Compare it with a gummy or a jelly, where gelatine is doing the structural work and the sweet
cannot exist in that form without replacing it. That is why the compressed-tablet family —
Parma Violets, our mint dragees,
mint imperials — tends to clear the vegan bar
when gummies do not.

How many calories are in a Parma Violet?

The rolls we sell weigh 7.3g a sweet, and the declaration gives 410 kcal and
93g of sugar per 100g. That works out at roughly 30 calories and 6.8g of sugar
per sweet — getting on for two teaspoons of sugar.

They are small, but they are very nearly all sugar, which is why the per-sweet figure is higher
than people expect from something that size. An
aniseed ball is 9 calories by comparison, and a
mint imperial 11. Fuller table in
how many calories are in one sweet.

Are they gluten free?

We will not put that claim on them. We publish the supplier’s full declaration on the
product page so you can read it
yourself, and we do not hold a certified gluten free range. If gluten is the question rather than
animal products, start from
which sweets are gluten free.

On the flavour

Violet divides people more sharply than anything else in a sweet shop. The taste comes from a
floral aroma compound that also turns up in soap and perfume, which is exactly why some people
say they taste like a bathroom cabinet. You either like it or you have strong views.

Before you buy

This page describes the Parma Violet rolls we stock and the declaration we
hold for them. Recipes differ between manufacturers and change over time, so if you are looking at
a pack from somewhere else, read that pack.