The Aviation Cocktail

On the heels of my unintentionally pot-stirring article about Texas wine, I figured I would run with the controversy and write about one of the most talked about and highly debated cocktails of late: the Aviation. Mention its name in the presence of anyone at all interested in cocktails, and you invite upon yourself a dissertation’s worth of material regarding its history and, of course, enough recipes on what makes a “proper” Aviation to fill a cookbook. The Aviation probably isn’t the gin drink that converts the vodka and water folks, but it definitely has its place in cocktail history.

Four years ago on the famed eGullet Spirits & Cocktails forum, a thread was started that began an exhaustive discussion about the Aviation Cocktail. I’ll do my best to be a little more concise and save you from having to read through six pages and 150 posts in order to get a recipe that might make you happy after a hard day at the office.

The problem with the Aviation, as is the problem with many other highly debated cocktails, is its simplicity. Most people can agree that the aviation ingredients consist of gin, a type of maraschino liqueur (pronounced marr-?-SKEE-noe, because it is freakin’ Italian and their diction calls for a hard ‘ka’ sound on ‘ch’ combinations), and lemon juice. For you people that are already ahead of me, I’ll address Crème de Violette in a little bit (oh and that one goes something like ‘krim do vee-oh-leht’). So there you have it, three basic ingredients, gin, maraschino, and lemon juice. Now, what brands? What proportions? Well, good luck with that, I hope you find something that works…

Just kidding. I couldn’t do that. The gin choice as well as the cherry liqueur choice are two of the most important items to consider. Because the quality of both ingredients determines whether the final product is one that you may soon forget, or one that is imbedded in your memory as a life-changing experience…ok, maybe that is a bit extreme, but it makes a LOT of difference.

First, the gin. This drink needs a good quality gin. My old stand-by for mixing is typically Plymouth Gin, and although it is perfectly at home in the drink, we might be able to do better. It is a good idea to stay away from the Dutch sweet gins as well as the a-typical infused gins like Hendricks and Old Raj (although fine gins they are, the rose & cucumber of the Hendricks, and the saffron of the Old Raj, take this drink in a much different direction than was probably originally intended). Another popular gin these days, No. 209 is tasty, but not bold enough. I’ve settled on a gin that we’ve been able to get for sometime now here in Houston. Made in San Francisco, Anchor Distillery’s Junipero gin is perfect.

Now that we have the base spirit knocked out, let’s figure out what cherry liqueur to use. What are our options? Luxardo Maraschino, Stock, Kirsch? I’ve even read where some people like Cherry Heering. In my opinion, there is only one suitable choice. Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur is one of the funkiest distillates available on the market. From Luxardo’s website we learn that, “It is one of the very few liqueurs in the world produced by distillation. It is obtained from the marasca, a sour cherry variety exclusively cultivated by Luxardo. The distillate is allowed to mature for two years in Finnish ash vats (this wood does not lend its colour even after many years of maturing), and is then diluted and sugared.” Not only does Luxardo distill the cherries themselves but also the crushed cherry pits, which lend some almond notes and general funk to its flavor. To some people, Luxardo Maraschino might be an acquired taste, but I feel it is what has helped the Aviation stand the test of time as a classic cocktail. Also, being one of the oldest available brands, it is likely that Luxardo was used in the early classic cocktails calling for a maraschino liqueur.

Rick, over at Kaiser Penguin did a superb job of combining several recipes from the bartending dream team. If confronted in person by any one of those masters, I would have a hard time telling them that their version of the classic didn’t really do it for me. I must agree with Rick though, that Mr. Regan’s proportions suited my tastes perfectly. If you are still too lazy to click over there, here is the recipe:

From The Joy of Mixology, by Gary Regan

The Aviation Cocktail (#2)

2 oz. Gin
½ oz. Maraschino Liqueur
½ oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
(I added a brandied cherry for garnish)

Combine in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

These proportions are refreshingly tart, yet they still allow the juniper to shine through as well as the funk of the Maraschino.

So now, we can sit back and relax while we sip our properly-balanced Aviation cocktail, right? WRONG! The oldest recipe that cocktail historian David Wondrich was able to find for an Aviation is in the vintage cocktail book, Recipes for Mixed Drinks by Hugo Ensslin (1916). It includes an elusive liqueur, Crème de Violette. Again, we find the same ingredients in the Old Mr. Boston Cocktail Book (1934). Talk about setting the cocktail geek world on fire…

Mr. Ensslin’s Aviation was written as follows:

1/3 Lemon Juice
2/3 El Bart Gin
2 dashes Maraschino
2 dashes Creme de Violette

Shake well in a mixing glass with cracked ice, strain and serve.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I had to go to Wikipedia when I was first learning about this one just to find out what Crème de Violette was. This only quenched half of my curiosity, so of course I did not rest until I had found and purchased this obscure liqueur to add to my already-exorbitant collection.

So what does one do? It sounds as if the Aviation could be two different drinks entirely. The version without the Crème de Violette has been an accepted Aviation for years and years, but it seems like the original drink was indeed made with the flower liqueur. To add more confusion, there is also a related cocktail called the Blue Moon which leaves out the maraschino entirely, leaving the gin, lemon juice, and crème de violette (the original Blue Moon recipe called for crème yvette—a now-defunct liqueur containing violet flowers and possibly vanilla; crème de violette was often substituted).

To avoid miscommunication, I think it would be safe from here on out on this website, to address the Aviation variations as two different drinks. We’ll refer to the cocktail containing gin, maraschino, lemon juice, and crème de violette as the Aviation #1, since the earliest-known recipe contained the latter ingredient. Gin, maraschino, and lemon juice can be referred to as the Aviation #2.

Coming up with proportions for the Aviation #1 can be tricky because maraschino and crème de violette are very powerful in their own right. Too much maraschino and the violette gets covered up. Conversely, as Toby Maloney of the Violet Hour in Chicago put it, “[Too much crème de violette] and it is like licking a French whore’s neck, in a bad way…” Mr. Maloney just rinses the glass with the violet liqueur, but personally I feel like the drink in the following proportions can stand up to more.

The Aviation #1

(thanks to Sam Kinsey for this recipe)

2 oz. Gin (Mr. Kinsey uses Tanqueray. I really enjoyed Junipero)
½ oz. Lemon Juice
2 Teaspoons Maraschino (I prefer Luxardo)
¼ oz. Crème de Violette (I use Rothman & Winter because it is most readily available to me)

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake to chill well, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Honestly, when I made my very first Aviation, I didn’t really care for it too much. After months of online reading about the drink, I would have thought that it was the ‘end all and be all’ of cocktails. I was a bit disappointed, but kept persevering while thinking, “With as much press and controversy surrounding this drink, there has to be something that I am not getting.” Finally, after trying Mr. Regan’s version and then Sam Kinsey’s, I understand its beauty. In a side-by-side taste test of our two Aviations, I cannot say that one is really better than the other.

In conclusion, I feel they are both really great for various reasons. I think it is important to delineate the differences between the two though. In spite of their similar ingredients, the final drinks stand well by themselves and have sharply distinct flavors. Because of this, I feel that we should not let one fall by the wayside in favor of the other. Both have their place in cocktail history.