Recipe: Aviation (serves one)
- 2 oz. gin
- 3/4 oz. lemon juice
- 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur
- 1/4 oz. Crème Yvette or crème de violette
- maraschino cherry
Combine liquid ingredients in cocktail shaker. Shake, then strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with cherry.
The Aviation dates back to around 1916. It originally included both maraschino and crème de violette, which it gave it a blue-sky color. In our version, we used Crème Yvette, which doesn’t give quite the same color, but makes for a delicious cocktail. We’ve read that for a long time, it was hard to get any liqueur made with violets in the U.S., so many recipes skip that ingredient altogether and just use maraschino.
If you get a bottle of Crème Yvette or crème de violette, you can also try making the Stratosphere or the Sleigh Ride.
Mixed in LA 