The Aviation

[bleachboy]

I'm sticking with my sugar syrup addition, although after tough experimentation I would recommend just a dash, maybe 1/4 tsp or so.. I just stick my spoon in the syrup then swish it around in the shaker before I shake it.

I dunno about Meyer lemons - they might bring the right amount of sweetness to the mix, but they might also mute the tartness of the lemon, an important quality of the Aviation.

Three days, and I'm an Aviation expert?

[birder53]

I'm sticking with my sugar syrup addition, although after tough experimentation I would recommend just a dash, maybe 1/4 tsp or so.. I just stick my spoon in the syrup then swish it around in the shaker before I shake it.

I dunno about Meyer lemons - they might bring the right amount of sweetness to the mix, but they might also mute the tartness of the lemon, an important quality of the Aviation.

Three days, and I'm an Aviation expert?

Meyer lemons! I prefer my Aviation with meyer lemons. I like the tiny bit of sweet it adds. I'll confess that I also like a big, fat maraschino cherry in my drink as well. I haven't been successfull finding myer lemons lately but once I do I'll make a big batch of Aviations. What a great drink!

[trillium]

That's the fun part about mixing, you can adjust the proportions to taste. I love making Aviations with Meyer lemons, mostly because the twist has a much more complex smell, but I hate sweetish drinks...so, I just add a little more lemon juice. The tip JAZ gave a while back about using the amerana cherries in syrup as a garnish for the drink is a fantastic one, they're expensive, but it really pushes it over the top.

regards,

trillium

[ned]

Love the cherries. I've soaked a teaspoon of sour cherry jam, in which the cherries are whole, in a tablespoon of gin, added that and gotten a double benefit, preserved cherry garnish and a touch of sweetness.

Edited May 15, 2004 by ned (log)

[slkinsey]

For anyone in the City looking for Luxardo... I found some at Union Square wines. It was funny...at first they didn't think they had any. Then they thought, "oh yea... that stuff... we used to have that, but I think we're out." Then they found the Luxardo Bitter and thought they had confused the two. I was all set to go home empty-handed (in the booze department, anyway) when I looked up and saw the Luxardo Maraschino on the next shelf up. The next thing out of the salesperson's mouth was, "hey... you use that stuff to make Aviations, right? how do you make those?"

[Lan4Dawg]

I was flipping through a book w/ "martini" receipts yesterday and found a cocktail called, "The Allen Cocktail". The receipt calls for:

4 parts gin

1 part maraschino liqueur

1/2 tsp fresh lemon

lemon twist

combine liquid ingredients in cocktail shaker w/ cracked ice and shake well. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish w/ lemon twist.

I did a quick double take wondering why that receipt looked familiar then it dawned on me, that is very similar to the aviation cocktail we had discussed in another thread (&, inspired by the thread had mixed and enjoyed several times). The major difference seems to be in the amount of maraschino and lemon juice. Any information on "the Allen Cocktail"? I had never heard of it before but did find it mentioned in a some other cocktail books. Interestingly enough all of the receipts are different fr/ each other.

[Dan Ryan]

Is it not a bit sweet?

[slkinsey]

"The Allen Cocktail". The receipt calls for:

4 parts gin (i.e., 2.0 oz)

1 part maraschino liqueur (i.e., 0.5 oz)

1/2 tsp fresh lemon (i.e., 0.1 oz)

lemon twist

colored text is editorial

This recipe isn't all that different from my Aviation recipe:

2.0 oz : gin

0.5 oz : fresh lemon juice

0.5 oz : maraschino

Lemon twist

The main difference is that the Allen Cocktail uses substantially less lemon juice. Other than that, they are identical. I would tend to agree with Dan that these ratios don't sound as good to me. The drink would be too sweet and wouldn't have the refreshing sourness of an Aviation.

[Lan4Dawg]

I did make a couple just to sample and they are much sweeter than an aviation as both of you mentioned.

I did find a couple of more receipts for The Allen Cocktail and they called for 2 parts gin to 1 part maraschino w/a dash of lemon juice. Quite frankly I preferred the first receipt w/ more gin and I wound up adding a touch more lemon juice b/c of the sweetness. The cocktail wound up being a happy medium between the two drinks--not as sweet as the Allen but not as sour as the Aviation. Perhaps my tastes run to a combination of the two--an "alienation"?

[JAZ]

I looked in my copy of Mr. Boston and found the Allen (but not the Aviation, interestingly). None of my other cocktail books mention it at all; they all have the Aviation listed.

Mr. B's recipe is 1.5 oz. gin, .75 oz of Maraschino, and .25 oz. lemon juice, which sounds like the 2 to 1 ratio you mention.

[Blondie]

WD-50 makes a more than passable aviation.

They certainly do. I had one a few days ago.

Bleachboy was on the right track as they do use simple syrup in theirs, and it far surpassed any that I've made without it.

[bleachboy]

Just got back from Las Vegas and I can report that Craftsteak and the bar next to "La Femme" at the MGM Grand both stock Luxardo and both will make you a very good Aviation if you tell them how.

[slkinsey]

Gary Regan's column in the SF Chron today talks about guess what? The Aviation.

The Aviation Cocktail, which dates to the 1930s, is a simple drink calling for gin, maraschino liqueur and fresh lemon juice -- but it's the maraschino that makes this cocktail stand tall. Many people who haven't tasted maraschino liqueur assume it's overly sweet, like maraschino cherries, but good maraschino liqueur -- available under the Luxardo and Stock brand names -- is far drier than the name might lead you to believe.

Made from Dalmatian Marasca cherries, pits included, maraschino adds a little sweetness and a wonderfully dry, peppery nuttiness to cocktails. There's a hint of cherries in the flavor profile, too.

The recipe he gives is the same as in his book, and it's the one I prefer:

2.0 oz : gin

0.5 oz : fresh lemon juice

0.5 oz : maraschino liqueur

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass (I like mine with the addition of a lemon twist garnish).

Gary's recipe actually bumps up the amount of maraschino from the more historical formulae, such as this one from cocktailDB which calls for 2 oz gin, 1 oz lemon juice and only two dashes of maraschino. This sounds like an excessively sour drink to me.

No mention in the article of the creme de violette history Dave mentions above (which sounds so cool and makes so much sense I have to find some creme de violette).

[ludja]

I've only had one Aviation at a bar but would like to make them at home. I tracked down some Luxardo.

For you Aviation fans out there that have already done some experimenting, what is your favorite brand gin to use in the drink?

[slkinsey]

For you Aviation fans out there that have already done some experimenting, what is your favorite brand gin to use in the drink?

Tanqueray is very good, but I have a fondness for good old Gordon's gin. It's got a nicely emphatic piney-ness that I like in drinks like the Aviation.

[bacchant036]

absolutely loving them with miclo violet liqueur,

we have it this way on out list at work and it goes down a treat,

put substantially less maraschino in though and a dash of some gomme.

find the violet often gets lost in the lemon and gin so use about 15mls.

i love this drink

[LindyCat]

We served Aviations at our last party after I read about them here, and they were a big hit. I loved watching suspicious friends' (gin and what?) eyes light up when they took the first sip. A former bartender had never encountered one, and took a minute to complain about the "-tini" phenomenon while she made herself and husband more Aviations.

eGullet...helping people drink better, one party at a time.

[kvltrede]

...For you Aviation fans out there that have already done some experimenting, what is your favorite brand gin to use in the drink?...

I've made Aviations with Beefeater, Gordon's, Gilbey's and Broker's. I think that Broker's Gin is easily my favorite gin for this drink with Beefeater a solid second. I think it's the prominence of the citrus notes in the Broker's that I like.

The Gordon's and Gilbey's-based Aviations were quite drinkable but not memorable. I mixed up the Broker's Aviation a few weeks ago after my Broker's Martini was a modest but drinkable failure (2.5 : .5, IIRC). The Aviation was so good that it was the only cocktail shaken the following weekend. With Broker's it's one of my favorites, maybe a notch or two below the Pegu Club but roughly equal to a Calvados Sidecar.

I use David Wondrich's measurements:

2 oz London dry gin

1/3 oz (2 tsp) maraschino liqueur

3/4 oz fresh lemon juice (strained, if possible)

David prefers his ungarnished but I usually forget that until after I've already dropped in a cherry. A lemon twist would be especially welcome, I think, if one prefers the Aviation recipes that call for less lemon juice. I use Luxardo Maraschino because that's what I've got. I haven't tried Maraska yet.

If anyone has made a wholly successful Martini with Broker's I'd be very interested in your ratio. I may just stick with Plymouth as my Martini gin but I'm willing to take another shot or two with Broker's now that the price of Plymouth has gone up in Chicago.

Kurt

[slkinsey]

I use David Wondrich's measurements:

2 oz London dry gin 

1/3 oz (2 tsp) maraschino liqueur

3/4 oz fresh lemon juice

Interesting. I'm looking at Dave's Esquire Drinks and see 2 oz gin, 1/2 oz lemon juice and 1 tsp maraschino.

The whole Aviation question is an interesting one for me. I recently had a fun conversation about it with Marco Dionysos, who was in town from SF for a few days. If you look at the older recipes, there doesn't seem to be a "balanced" recipe for a gin/lemon juice/maraschino cocktail (by balanced, I mean with approximately equal parts of sweet and sour). In the Savoy Cocktail Book, for example, there is the Aviation with 2 oz dry gin (2/3) 1 oz lemon juice (1/3) and 2 dashes maraschino and there is the Allen with 2 oz Plymouth gin (2/3) 1 oz maraschino (1/3) and 1 dash lemon juice. I can't find anything with, say, 2 ounces of gin and a half ounce each of lemon juice and maraschino. To my taste, the Savoy Aviation is fundamentally a sour drink whereas the Savoy Allen is fundamentally a sweet drink.

[kvltrede]

I use David Wondrich's measurements:

2 oz London dry gin 

1/3 oz (2 tsp) maraschino liqueur

3/4 oz fresh lemon juice

Interesting. I'm looking at Dave's Esquire Drinks and see 2 oz gin, 1/2 oz lemon juice and 1 tsp maraschino....

Hmmm. I have Daves' book but I guess I'm using the slightly different recipe from the Esquire website. I've also cut-and-pasted Gary Regan's and Dale DeGroff's recipes into a half-assed database of sorts but I haven't gotten past Dave's cyberrecipe since I made it with Brokers.

Kurt

[Splificator]

I use David Wondrich's measurements:

2 oz London dry gin 

1/3 oz (2 tsp) maraschino liqueur

3/4 oz fresh lemon juice

Interesting. I'm looking at Dave's Esquire Drinks and see 2 oz gin, 1/2 oz lemon juice and 1 tsp maraschino....

Hmmm. I have Daves' book but I guess I'm using the slightly different recipe from the Esquire website.

Perhaps I should explain. I wrote Esquire Drinks in 2000 and 2001, based in part on the drink-of-the-week columns I'd been doing for esquire.com, but with a goodly number of additional drinks. When the book was finished, the column lived on for another three years or so, during which time I revisited a number of drinks that I felt had been shortchanged in the book (particularly in the essay department) and added scads that had never made it into the book in the first place, chiefly because I had never heard of them.

While revisiting the drinks that were in the book (this is getting awfully confusing), I took the opportunity to test them again. And again. That's why the online Aviation recipe is different from the one in Esquire Drinks. And, probably, better. We learn by doing (there are notable exceptions).

I should add, just to add to the confusion, that I've collected a number of these newer or revised recipes (but alas not their accompanying essays) in my new book, Killer Cocktails: An Intoxicating Guide to Sophisticated Drinking,* due from HarperCollins on May 1st. It also contains a few recipes of my own and quite a few more that were freshly exhumed from the archives just for the book.

All clear? I thought so.

In any case, I'm delighted that in one form or another the recipe pleases. Certainly one of my favorites.

--DW

*No, that's not my title. I wanted to call it How To Make Drinks and Intoxicate People, but the legal department though different.

[kvltrede]

...I should add, just to add to the confusion, that I've collected a number of these newer or revised recipes (but alas not their accompanying essays) in my new book, Killer Cocktails: An Intoxicating Guide to Sophisticated Drinking,* due from HarperCollins on May 1st. It also contains a few recipes of my own and quite a few more that were freshly exhumed from the archives just for the book....

--DW

*No, that's not my title. I wanted to call it How To Make Drinks and Intoxicate People, but the legal department though different.

A new book! Fantastic!

Too bad about the title. Your original title was infinitely better and damned clever to boot. No matter, though, I'm looking forward to it. Congrats on the imminent publication!

Kurt

[LindyCat]

absolutely loving them with miclo violet liqueur,

we have it this way on out list at work and it goes down a treat,

put substantially less maraschino in though and a dash of some gomme.

find the violet often gets lost in the lemon and gin so use about 15mls.

i love this drink

←

Where can one find violette? In Chicago, one hopes? If not, would parfait amour (which seems more esoteric to me, but is stocked by Sam's--go figure) be an acceptable substitute? I haven't tried either.

[Splificator]

A new book!  Fantastic!

Too bad about the title.  Your original title was infinitely better and damned clever to boot.  No matter, though, I'm looking forward to it.  Congrats on the imminent publication!

Kurt

←

Hey, thanks! It's a small book, but I'm pretty excited about it. I'll just have to use the original title for something else. Something...dangerous.

--DW

[Heikki]

This Easter, three weeks ago, I served Aviations to seven people with ages varying from 19 to 75. In other words, it was interesting to see if I could come up with a recipe that pleases the whole age and taste spectrum. The recipe I used was this:

6 cl (2 oz) gin (Plymouth gin)

2 cl (2/3 oz) Maraschino

3 cl (1 oz) lemon juice (normal, not very sour)

This was shaken as one amount and then strained into two small cocktail glasses. For garnish I used cocktail cherries that were first rinsed under running water to keep them making the cocktail finish too sweet. I also snapped a small lemon twist on top of the drink but did not add the twist into the drink.

The drink was very well received and described as refreshing, not too sweet and simply just "good". I also think that 6/2/3 works well unless you want to highlight any of the components. With 6/2/3 you can tell it is alcoholic and gin based, 2 of marschino does not come through overpowering while it mixes well with lemon to keep the whole drink not becoming too sour.

--

Heikki Vatiainen