I have been hearing about the Aviation cocktail for a while. The folks at 12 Bottle Bar talk about celebrated bar tenders Gary Regan and Erik Ellestad making the Aviation, about Harry Craddock erroneously leaving the Creme de Violette out in his famous Savoy Cocktail Book. David Wondrich’s talks about it in Imbibe! Aviation Gin even uses lavender in its botanical mix. There's even a movie named after it. Invented by Hugo Ensslin, head bartender at the Hotel Wallick in New York, and first published in his 1916 Recipes for Mixed Drinks, the Aviation is a type of gin sour. For reasons of Scott's susceptibility to heartburn with lemon juice, I picked one of the ratios with lower levels of it.
Aviation Cocktail
2 oz Gin (London Dry)
1/2 oz Lemon juice
1/2 oz Maraschino Liqueur
2 tsp Crème de Violette
Shake over ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with a maraschino cherry.
The verdict: We both liked it. I thought it was a nice balance, with lovely floral notes complimenting the sour, and that the botanicals and maraschino blended well. Scott thought it was "a wonderful fruity-ish, but not too fruity drink", and would count among the top of that category for him.
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