• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Recipes
  • Techniques
  • What are we drinking tonight?

Booze Magic logo

January 10, 2020

Jazz Age Elegance: The Aviation

Jump to Recipe

The Aviation is a truly elegant cocktail. It dresses the classic combo of Gin, lemon, and sweetener up with a dash of Creme de Violette, giving the drink a smoky blue color. Coupe glasses are my go-to when serving drinks up, but there’s something about the Aviation’s grace and class that calls for a Martini glass, as tippy as they may be.

Aviation Cocktail
Cool Elegance.

The Aviation got super popular in the later 90’s and early 2000’s, largely because the Creme de Violette had just become available again – but barely. This scarcity created the sense that you had to be in the know to hunt the key ingredient down, and bartenders love secrets and obscurity I find, so much so, that it soon could be found everywhere. Its popularity peaked in the early 10’s – but now cocktail cognoscenti care less about rediscovering old prohibition and pre-prohibition era classics and inventing new flavors. I still drink and serve the elegant Aviation, but Maraschino does tend to the cloying – which I believe is due to the use of the cherry pits in the distillation of this liqueur. Otherwise, The Aviation has delicate and refreshing floral notes, and looks magnificent. You can imagine drinking it while waiting to board the Pan Am clipper to some exotic destination.

Aviation

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 1.5 oz Gin
  • 0.5 oz Maraschino
  • 0.5 oz Lemon Juice fresh squeezed, always.
  • 0.25 oz Creme de Violette
  • 1 lemon twist

Instructions
 

  • Shake liquid ingredients
  • Strain into chilled cocktail glass
  • Serve up with twist

Notes

Always use fresh lemon juice. I go light on the Maraschino and heavy on the Violette. 
Keyword cocktail, creme de violette, gin, lemon, maraschino

Punch has a detailed history of the rise and fall of this cocktail (here). Dating from from the early 20th Century, it was popularized in the classic Savoy cocktail book, though this later recipe dropped the Violette, which is a shame.

« Making Simple Syrup is Simple!
The Classic Whiskey Sour »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Booze Magic
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

About the Barkeep

The Booze Magician has been mixing drinks for about 20 years now with minimal formal training, just reading and close observation on the rare occasions he goes out to a bar, plus trial and error. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife (The Booze Magician’s Assistant) and kids (for whom he’s currently building a treehouse). By day, he works in online advertising. Read more of his cocktail musings here.

Let’s Stay in Touch

Newsletter signup

Don’t Miss These!

The Classic Whiskey Sour

Old-Fashioned Cocktail

How to Build an Old Fashioned

Pegu Club Cocktail

Elegant Gin Sour: The Pegu Club Cocktail

Manhattan Cocktail

How to Make a Manhattan Cocktail

Contact the Barkeep

Cocktail Themes

Angostura Bitters Boozy Boston Bourbon Champagne ckear ice Classic Classics Cointreau Creme de Violette crushed ice Dry Vermouth Equal Parts Gin Grenadine Hangover Ice Lemon Lemon Juice Lillet Blanc Lime Juice Maraschino Martini Orange Bitters Orange Juice Pernod Recipes Rinse Rye Served Up Shaken Sour St. Germain Stirred Sweet Vermouth syrup Techniques Up Whiskey

Disclosures

As a member of the Amazon Associates Program, I earn from qualifying purchases of products I recommend on this site.

Footer

Follow me on Instagram!
Something is wrong.
Instagram token error.
Follow
Load More

Copyright © 2023 Booze Magic on the Brunch Pro Theme