Name: Moonlight Cocktail (Gaz Regan's)
Total time: 2 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Gin; 22.5 ml Triple sec; 15 ml Crème de violette; 7.5 ml Lime juice; 7.5 ml Lemon juice

Moonlight Cocktail (Gaz Regan's)
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Serve in a Flute glass

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
³⁄₄ oz	Cointreau triple sec liqueur
¹⁄₂ oz	Rothman & Winter Crème de Violette Liqueur
¹⁄₄ oz	Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₄ oz	Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Flute glass.
Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Basically an Aviation but with triple sec in place of maraschino and lime instead of lemon juice. Gaz used lime juice because he didn't have any lemons but in this adaptation of his recipe I've mellowed the citrus sourness by using a combination of both lime and lemon juice.

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History:

This riff on the classic Aviation was created by Gary "gaz" Regan and first published in his The Cocktailian column in the San Francisco Chronicle on 27 September 2007. Gaz wrote, "After making my new baby I took it for a stroll around my deck and gazed up at the moon. It was off-white that evening, but it had a faint purplish hue to it. Just like my drink. The Moonlight Cocktail was born."

For the story behind the origins of the Aviation and its many other variations see our Aviation cocktail page.

More cocktails by Gary 'gaz' Regan

Nutrition:

One serving of Moonlight Cocktail (Gaz Regan's) contains 191 calories

Alcohol content:

1.6 standard drinks
23.03% alc./vol. (23.03° proof)
22.5 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Showing 10 of 14 comments for Moonlight Cocktail (Gaz Regan's).
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Caspian Berggren

20th March at 18:28

Since Maraschino liqueur isn't ny favourite I tried this out and it's honestly perfect for my taste buds. It's violette forward, similar to the Aviation, but without the astringency that comes with Maraschino. I used Dry Curacao and to me that worked fabulously. It's really great to see violette where it gets to shine without overpowering or getting overpowered by the other ingredients!

Katie ALLEN

14th June 2024 at 20:20

Accidentally used bianco vermouth rather than Cointreau, having Arsenic and Old Lace in mind.
Still delish!

Dávid Ugróczi

20th January 2024 at 20:24

Made it with 15 ml of lime, it was pretty well balanced, the créme de violette wasn't as overpowering as I expected. It's definitely more approachable than the Aviation.

letti pearce

30th October 2023 at 17:43

I always make this when I have a little bit of lemon and lime juice left over. Tastes like refreshers (the fizzy fruit sweets) in alcoholic liquid form. A firm house favourite.

Miguel Perales

26th August 2023 at 22:18

Not much into "floral" cocktails, but this was really good. Nicely balanced. Nose was very "citrusy" and the Creme de Viollete was very prevalent upfront on the palate, with a nice citrus finish. A definite recommend.

Matija Prelec

25th June 2023 at 05:25

Very gin forward, would have to try out with other gins. Rest of it is a nice base to round things off. I wonder how it would go with Botanist or Old Pilot's.

Andrew Scurr

16th January 2023 at 17:56

Just tried this (with all lime) - a bit hit. Will definitely try again!

Alasdair MacDonald

6th August 2021 at 18:09

Went with the full half shot of Lime. Wow what a winner! Dryer the Gin the better. Family Fav. now.

John Hinojos

14th March 2021 at 23:40

Made to recipe and liked very much. Would agree with Arild and add a dash of absinthe and bitters. Everything balances perfectly.

Arild Anda

6th March 2021 at 19:29

I preferred this to Aviation. It got even better with one dash absinthe and one dash of Tonic bitters (from Bitter Truth, I suppose many citrus bitters would work)

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