Monday, July 27, 2015

the last aviator

3/4 oz New York Distilling Perry Tot's Navy Strength Gin
3/4 oz Tempus Fugit Crème de Violette
3/4 oz Campari
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/4 oz Honey Syrup

Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass.

After the seminars on Thursday, I decided to get dinner at Angeline. The night before, I spoke to Christine Nielsen at the Pernod Ricard Welcome Party where she was a shaker girl in the Ramos Gin Fizz room. She mentioned that she was now tending bar at Angeline and working with Boston ex-pat Jeff Grndrich, and that seemed like reason enough to fit a visit into my schedule. For a drink the following night at the restaurant, I asked about the Last Aviator since it looked intriguing yet I was skeptical. Christine replied that she doubted it at first too, but it soon became her favorite on the list. I then recalled the equal parts and crème de violette-laden Blooey Blues from Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933 and decided to give it a shot. While the drink started as Jeff's idea, the recipe was a group effort through a few rounds of tasting. I never did ask how close to an Aviation this started with before it took a more Last Word structure.
The Last Aviator proffered a floral and herbal aroma. Next, honey and lime balanced each other on the sip, and juniper, floral, and bitter orange flew through on the swallow. Over time, the balance became a tad sharper when warmer due to the violet, but it was never soapy or off in any other way.

2 comments:

Paul said...

I have never made a drink that turned out so differently from the original. I used Bitter Truth Violet Liqueur which is dark purple and when stirred it turned out dark grey. I don’t know if there was some chemical reaction or just the violet liqueur that made it this dark. Can I send you a picture of it on instagram ? It tastes good though.

Paul



CocktailVirgin said...

Not a chemical reaction -- it's just that the creme de violettes use different red and/or blue artificial dyes. I don't know what Tempus Fugit uses, but one blog compared and contrasted Rothman & Winter and Bitter Truth -- it came down to one dye being different and yielded different colored Aviations (both liqueurs are made at the same place, the Purkhart Distillery in Austria). Aviations can be pink, purple, or blue from what I've seen.

Here, Campari is dyed an artificial red color (used to be cochineal here). I have noted drinks with lime juice that end up sort of grey or brown.

Feel free to post your Instagram account and I'll definitely give it a look, but I'm not surprised.