An aviation combines gin, lemon juice, maraschino liqueur and creme de violette. I got my recipe from David Lebovitz's Drinking French. We were introduced to the drink by our dear, departed friend The Playwright five years ago (see post).
I'd say the flavor is kind of like grape-flavor Pez. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though odd as there are no grape ingredients - could be a psychological trick with the purple color. And intensely purple it is! Interestingly, The Playwright's were darker:
My wife thinks his were also more bitter. I'm guessing he used the creme de violette in greater proportion. I know he used the same bottle because he gave it to us after that weekend - the maraschino liqueur, too. Generous guy.
huh, interesting...
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely going to have to experiment with the gin I have.
Obviously, I'm inclined to encourage that.
DeleteI have been. I discovered an interesting thing:
DeleteThe gin we have is not... enjoyable... on its own. Sure, I get that a lot of alcohols are not. Rum is better with stuff in it, too. But the initial tries I made with gin didn't improve it.
However...
But let me interject:
Maraschino liqueur, in my opinion, is also not very good. It has what I can only describe as a cardboard flavor. Up to know, nothing I've done with it has gotten rid of that flavor, so I use Heering in its place.
However, due to this post, I tried the two together, and an amazing thing happened! The stuff I don't like about gin and the stuff I don't like about the maraschino disappear when they're mixed together.
So I have an interesting drink that uses rose elixir that I think is pretty good.
I haven't played with Heering yet. Or rose elxir. Fun stuff.
DeleteSounds like a unique drink. When I think of "aviation" I also think of fuel, and I have had more than enough drinks that could have fallen in such a category.
ReplyDeleteI have wondered if the color has something to do with aviation fuel but a Google query tells me the fuel is sometimes blue, though not purple. But maybe when the cocktail was first invented?
DeleteThese look very tatsy but I never heard of creme de violette.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried it on its own, though I'm guessing that's the source of the bitterness. That seems logical with a floral flavoring.
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