Aviation Cocktail

I love this gin-based Aviation Cocktail for all it’s refined floral and citrus notes, but picking the right gin is important because of the more subtle ingredients in the cocktail (i.e. the maraschino liquer and the creme de violette). One of the properties that makes gin-based cocktails interesting to me is that gins taste quite differently from brand to brand. Some are more neutral, some are very herbaceous, some are traditional in their juniper notes and some stray very far from that classic taste. They all have their place, but some drinks I’ve very specific about: I really like Hendricks with herbs and a gin and tonic requires Tanqueray to make me really happy. I’m a little more flexible when I make Marc’s favorite drink, the Aviation cocktail. I tend to use Sapphire, but I have liked Beefeater and Plymouth as well. The milky blue color that’s so unique to the Aviation is caused when the crème de violette and the citrus interact. I don’t really know why, but it’s really cool and creates a very unique blueish purple hue. A drink this good requires a really good maraschino cherry as well, so this is another great drink to showcase the Homemade Maraschino cherries I talked you into making. Even if you don’t have fancy cherries lying around, don’t let that dissuade you from making the Aviation Cocktail; if you’re a citrus person, this may just become your favorite.

Print Recipe

Aviation Cocktail

Aviation Cocktail is refreshing classic cocktail with gin, creme de violette and maraschino liquer served up or on the rocks.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Servings: 1

Ingredients

• 2 ounces gin I like Sapphire
• ¾ ounce citrus juice lemon is the traditional, but I like white grapefruit too
• ½ ounce maraschino liquor
• ¼ + ounce crème de violette
• homemade Maraschino cherries*

Instructions

• To be traditional, pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake well.
• Serve up with a Maraschino cherry.
• While the drink is very dramatic visually when served up, the Aviation packs a punch and I really like them to be super cold, so I often serve them on the rocks. And that's great too.

Notes

*Luxardo's cherries are awesome. Look for them in specialty food and drink shops.
Half lemon and half grapefruit is a nice twist on the recipe for the Aviation Cocktail I've listed below and if you can ever find “cocktail grapefruits,” like I did this December, they’re a great substitution.