Yes, the color’s all wrong—”pilot’s delight,” I like that. Yvette makes a tasty cocktail, though.

Hi, Will,

That is a marvelous compliment, thank you. I’m very happy that Cold Glass is being helpful. Wondrich and Stewart are very knowledgeable and skillful writers, and I’ve learned much from them, too—you’ve chosen well in your research.

As for the comments: it seems that WordPress, in its wisdom, includes the “trackback” and “pingback” references in their comment totals. I would do it differently if it were up to me, but at least we know where the number comes from.

Thanks for reading Cold Glass, and for the encouragement.

Anyway, I’m trying to step up my cocktail game and this site has been very beneficial. I have been voraciously reading everything you, David Wondrich, et al. have to write on the subject. I’m also enjoying Amy Stewart’s “The Drunken Botanist”. But, as subjective as cocktails are, you recipes always seem “just right” and in-line with my tastes. Even a Wondrich version of the Aviation I found online omits the Crème de Violette, but after seeking out all the ingredients recently and following the recipe above, I can’t imagine omitting anything.

One question: On almost all of your pages I see that there are a certain number of comments, but the the actual number displayed is far less. For example, it says “23 Comments” above but there aren’t nearly that many. (Maybe I’m just overlooking a button for another page where they continue.)

Thanks again!

Hi, Don—I agree that the Crème de Violette seems to be a natural for the Aviation. On the other hand, absent Crème de V., respected bartenders made the drink without for decades. We work with what we have, I guess. It’s fascinating to me how drinks get redefined over time, based on available ingredients, and the Aviation is a good example of that.

no c.d.v is no aviation
i don’t like the raste of maraschino very much but in
the aviation it has a perfect counterpart: c.d.v
i would like to sample your c.d.v, seems to bring more
colour in the drink then my giffard c.d.v

best don sling

Good observation, Daniel. I should have mentioned something about that, so I’m glad you did. Thanks!

Thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoy my articles—and the cocktails.

Your comment about the “yellow” Aviation being a good sour is an excellent reminder that we should evaluate cocktails on their intrinsic qualities, as you did with this one. Anyone who has spent time with old bar manuals knows that just because a drink is a century old doesn’t mean it’s worth drinking; and as you point out, just because a cocktail isn’t the same as the “original” doesn’t mean it isn’t good. Thanks for the reminder.

Don’t you love it when years after you write a post it suddenly comes back to life?

The Aviation is a great favorite of mine. So I’d like to present a different point of view on its last decades.

I started getting serious about cocktails in May of 2002. At that time the Aviation (gin, maraschino, lemon) was “the secret handshake” of the cocktail set – if you knew what the Aviation was, you were ‘in the know’. I believe Dale DeGroff brought it back from obscurity, but it might be Paul Harrington who made it famous in his 1998 book “Cocktail, a Drinks Manual for the 21rst Century” and in his cocktail column on Wired.com [which may have actually been the first cocktail “blog”], and because he was serving them to the dot com crowd in Emeryville, CA.

The “yellow” Aviation (1.5 gin, .75 lemon, .5 maraschino) was a smash hit – in my life making instant believers out of cocktail skeptics. Luxardo Maraschino is great stuff, but easily overpowering and must be strictly measured or you will wind up with what Harrington termed ‘a glass of pixie stix’

When the first edition of Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails came out in 2004, he mentioned that as great as the Aviation was, he had had a ‘Blue Moon’ (an Aviation plus Crème de Violette) which was better. We all waited until 2008 when Rothman and Winter re-introduced Crème De Violette to the US, and by then there were lots of reprints of cocktail books and we all had Ensslin’s recipe in our hands. Here is Gary Regan’s take on that moment – http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/28/WIVTS4MNB.DTL

Personally, I was not impressed with either the Rothman & Winter or the “original” Aviation and after buying two more different bottlings of Crème De Violette I can’t even remember what it tasted like. But I should dust off some bottles and investigate again – and try your recipe!

For me the most important point is that the ‘yellow’ aviation can be a tremendous ‘sweet / sour’ drink.

And isn’t amazing how recipes evolve and tastes change?

I’m with you on all points! Wouldn’t it be great to see detailed inventories of home and professional bars from the time? :)
It’s interesting I stumbled across this today, I just started a month-long focus entirely on Maraschino on my blog…
http://www.and1morefortheroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/maraschino-march.html

Thanks for the reply!

Hi, Rhett, thanks for the comment, it really goes to the heart of the article.

You’re right to point out that there are many cocktails that call for Maraschino. I’ve come to enjoy Maraschino over time, much more than I did when I wrote this article, enough to search out recipes that include it. My remark about never using more than a quarter ounce is amusing in retrospect; I’ll just write that off to the learning curve, developing a taste for the stuff.

The question I pondered as I wrote this article was the likelihood that a home bar in the first decades of the 20th century would include Maraschino, or just the more commonly requested basic additives like vermouth, curacao or triple sec, bitters, perhaps grenadine. It’s pure speculation—I have no idea where one would even start looking for stats on the subject—but speculation based on the marginalization of both Maraschino and Violette, and finally the complete disappearance altogether of the Violette. At least Maraschino had enough going for it that it stayed on the shelves; poor Violette, with even fewer recipes to prop it up, the marketplace just didn’t support it.

I’ll say one thing: I’m delighted that there are finally enough people with the interest and awareness, like yourself, to support these products and bring them some prominence and market viability again.