"AviationCocktail" news and stories

We made plans to welcome guests from New York this week; however, a snow storm prevented them from enjoying fun in the sun in our home down in Mexico. Instead of cursing the weather for canceled flights, we made a round of aviation cocktails.

Hugh R. Ensslin's book Recipes for Mixed Drinks was one of the last cocktail recipe collections published before Prohibition. Although historian-type folks like David Wondrich have found passing mentions to this cocktail in other sources, Ensslin's book contains the first aviation cocktail recipe anyone' s found thus far.

His recipe calls for El Bart gin, a brand now defunct. I have been unable to find out details of what this gin might have been like. The collector world was wow'ed when an old tin sign advertising this brand sold for $60,500 at auction.

Many post Prohibition aviation recipes do not include violette as it is not easy to find. Rothman & Winter is now available in the U.S. Maraschino is a cherry liqueur made from maraska cherries. The three brands available in the U.S. are Luxardo, Maraska and Stock.

After the jump, find the recipe for the Aviation Cocktail.

I don't know if I could ever be a bartender. I like the idea of being one, but it seems to me it's like the ultimate pop quiz in a very intense situation. People come in off the street and ask you for a Tequila Sunrise or a Negroni or A Slow Comfortable Screw Up Against The Wall, and you immediately have to know how to do them. Sure, you can stop and look in a book (I did that when I was a sorta-bartender at a restaurant), but a real bartender has to know how to make these drinks immediately, especially if it's a Friday or Saturday night. Though I guess it's like any other skill, you learn through practice.

Esquire has the four obscure drinks that every bartender should know how to make. I've heard of (but never had) The Aviation Cocktail, but I've never heard of the other three.