Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Tie One On Tuesday



Did you know today is Aviation Day? Yeah, me neither...but it is and I am here to give you some yummy cocktail recipes that will send you sky high!

Let's kick off Aviation Day with a an Aviation Cocktail! This cocktail is an oldie but a goodie. Its first appearance was in 1916 and variations of this yummy gin drink have been flying around ever since. If you like gin, with a little bit of sweet, this is the cocktail for you. I can attest that this is a very good drink! If you do not like gin, try this cocktail and I will guarantee that you will fall in love.

The Aviation
2 ounces gin
1/4 ounce maraschino cherry liqueur
1/2 ounce lemon juice
A small shake of Creme de Violette (the original had this, the updated version does not)
Mix ingredients in a shaker with ice, strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a lemon or orange rind.

Even if you can't enjoy an actual flight, you can still celebrate Aviation Day with the Paper Airplane. Drink a few of these and you will have enough courage to fly your digits over to the cutie at table two.

The Paper Airplane
3/4 ounce bourbon
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
3/4 ounce Nonino Amaro (this is an Italian liqueur, usually consumed after dinner)
3/4 ounce Aperol (this is comparable, but less alcohol than Compari)
Mix all ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into a martini glass


I will never ever ever consume this next cocktail ever again thanks to my college years and the fact they were a dollar a shot at Four Corners in Chapel Hill. I felt like a Kamikaze was in my stomach, shooting his way out. That shouldn't stop you from having one. Go for it, but you have been warned. 

Kamikaze Shot
1  ounce vodka
1 ounce Triple Sec
1 ounce lime juice (please, for the love of all things holy, use fresh limes)
Add all the ingredients together in a shaker and pour into a shot glass. 

Today we pay tribute to those trailblazers who took the skies and made traveling a bit faster. Look up, raise your glass and thank those birdmen and women! PS-don't drink and fly, unless you are doing some sort of fly dance, then by all means, do it and put it on YouTube! 


2 comments:

Lucy | Charm About You said...

Hahahahahahaha!! I'm slightly intolerant to alcohol so even reading that makes me giddy!

Benjamin said...

Actually the missing Creme de violette was due to a typographical error. The Aviation as debuted in the last cocktail book published before Prohibition. The first cocktail book published after Prohibition (The Savoy Cocktail Book) mistakenly omitted it.

Prohibition also made fancy-pants liqueurs like this impossible to find. Creme de violette more or less disappeared until the mid 2000's.

It is, however, a delightful cocktail that I encourage everyone to try.