GUD BLOG: SINGLE POST
The Perfect Aviation Cocktail
An elegant vehicle to highlight the profound cherry liqueur that is Luxardo Maraschino, the aviation cocktail has been our house standard tipple for some years now. Ideal for those long summer evenings on the front porch it also works well as an aperitif any time of the year. We’ve gone through several bottles of Luxardo solely in the construction of this vintage drink and even posted our favorite recipe right here at Swigs a few years ago. But as more and more cocktailers discover this classic and share their experiences we found that our favorite recipe has been missing one crucial ingredient.
Only recently has crème de violette become available in the American market. Though not locally procurable to us, we convinced a friend to snag a bottle during his recent visit to New York. From the distributor’s website: “Rothman & Winter Crème de Violette is produced from a careful maceration of Queen Charlotte and March Violets in “Weinbrand” (this distilled from grapes), with cane sugar added for sweetness. Over its three generations, Destillerie Purkhart has produced this liqueur by special request of its regional gastronomy customers. In these local markets, the buyer is most often the “Konditorei” who will use the Violette in special cakes and chocolates.”
Chocolate and special cakes are swell but what crème de violette does to enhance the depth of an aviation is nothing short of amazing. What was a balanced drink of herbs, citrus and the cherry, bitter almond flavors of maraschino is elevated by a floral intensity. After some tinkering we determined that the amount of lemon juice should be slightly reduced to allow the equal proportion of liqueurs more time to shine. As with any good classic cocktail the proportions can be adjusted slightly to your tastes and frankly, we may just be using a touch more crème de violette for a while. We all agreed that the following recipe was the most balanced:
1-1/2 oz. gin
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/3 oz. maraschino liqueur
1/3 oz. crème de violette
– Shake with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Like so many other pre-Prohibition cocktails, we once believed that the aviation was named after some obscure event or person forever lost to the passage of time. But after making this truer version that turns out the semi-transparent color of a bruised winter sky the naming becomes quite clear. Which god do we thank for making one of our favorite cocktails even better?
2009.11.30 Todd Abrams at 4:14 pm
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6 Responses to The Perfect Aviation Cocktail
I'm dieing to try this and was wondering what gin you'd recommend. It absolutely sounds marvelous! Love the name of your blog too. How clever!
Thanks for your comment, Suzy!
Since there's plenty of citrus, we've gotten away with using inexpensive Seagrams gin for aviations. If you're mixing for people who aren't into gin that much, it becomes noticeably smoother when using something like Bombay Sapphire.
Regular Bombay and Beefeater's are safe without being to expensive. It's what we normally use for all of our gin cocktails.
Unless otherwise specified, I always go for Hendrick’s. It’s well worth the extra couple dollars with its rating at 798 points of 800 available at an international gin fest.
Thanks for the note, and the numbers, Matthew. I’m afraid that Hendrick’s aggressive aromas would pretty much ruin an aviation.
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Without mixing anything myself, I’ve read around that Plymouth Gin is suitable and preferred in some circles for the Aviation.