Akebia quinata

A lovely semi evergreen climber with delicious chocolate scented reddish-purple flowers, in racemes 12cm long, produced in early spring are sometimes followed by purple sausage-shaped fruits to 10cm in length. Hardy down to -20°.  You need a big space for this climber which grows in vine like fashion and will cover up to 8m once mature. 

Medicinally this plant is used extensively in Chinese medicine and used to treat urinary tract infections, arthritis and obesity.