Squid Mixes: Empress Aviation

I last posted about the Aviation cocktail about five years ago (see here).  I first posted about Empress Gin, dyed indigo with butterfly pea flower, about three years ago (see here).  When my wife recently requested an Aviation (a drink she's been ordering a lot at restaurants lately), I thought to put them together in order to enhance the purple color.  While Empress Gin has a recipe of their own on the company website, I chose to stick with the recipe in David Lebovitz's Drinking French in order to maintain flavor balance (and not cut out the creme de violette altogether).  

As I hope you can see in the photos, my latest attempt is definitely more purple than my 2021 effort.

2026

2021

However, they're still not as dark as the ones The Playwright made for us back in 2016.

2016

Sadly, he's not around anymore to ask but my guess is that he swapped the 2:1 proportion between the maraschino liqueur and the creme de violette in favor of the latter.  I may try that next time.  My wife has also suggested that his were more bitter which could bring greater flavor balance.