COCKTAIL DU JOUR

The Aviation.  (That little dark purple thing in the bottom of the glass is the maraschino cherry.)

Today’s cocktail is the Aviation.  It’s named for its purplish-blue color, imparted by crème de violette... but the name is also appropriate because a couple of these gin-based babies will have you flying high.

The Aviation was created sometime prior to 1916 by one Hugo Ensslin, and today numerous variations exist.  Here’s the one I made:

2 oz gin (many recipes specify Plymouth gin; I used Hendrick’s)
Juice of ½ lemon, freshly squeezed
½ oz Luxardo maraschino liqueur
¼ oz crème de violette

Add ingredients to ice in a cocktail shaker.  Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a cherry.  (If you can get your hands on Luxardo maraschino cherries, even better.  They are the Real Thing, small, dark purple, and intensely flavored - a far cry from the fluorescent red horrors we all think of when we hear the words “maraschino cherry.”)

Crème de violette can be hard to find, for which reason many recipes for this cocktail omit it, with no major ill effect.  But if you can score a bottle, it does add an interesting sweet floral note to the drink... and, of course, there’s that characteristic color, the color of a high-altitude sky.  Cheers!