Name: Blue Moon Cocktail (1940's recipe)
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 60 ml Gin; 10 ml Crème de violette; 10 ml Lemon juice; 5 ml Sugar syrup (2:1); 10 ml Egg white (pasteurised)

Blue Moon Cocktail (1940's recipe)
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Blue Moon Cocktail (1940's recipe) image

Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
2 oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
¹⁄₃ oz	Rothman & Winter Crème de Violette Liqueur
¹⁄₃ oz	Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₆ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
¹⁄₃ oz	Egg white (pasteurised) or 3 dashes Fee Brothers Fee Foam cocktail foamer or Aquafaba or Egg white replacement (vegan)

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
Prepare raspberries for garnish.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice and strain back into shaker.
DRY SHAKE (without ice).
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
Garnish with raspberries.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Egg white (pasteurised) - Eggs

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

A relation of the Aviation [see history], the Blue Moon features on the back label of Créme Yvette bottles dating from the 1940's. This cocktail became so synonymous with Créme Yvette that when production of the liqueur ceased in 1969 the cocktail was also forgotten. That was until 2010, when Rob Cooper relaunched Créme Yvette, a product formerly made by his father. In so doing he also revived interest in this cocktail. I worked with Rob on St-Germain at this time and I can attest to the efforts and expense he went to, in an effort to authentically replicate his family's liqueur.

However, the Blue Moon is also made with crème de violette liqueur rather than Créme Yvette. Using Crème Yvette creates a pale pink drink (pictured) while crème de violette produces a blue-grey coloured drink that befits its name. The difference in colour leads me to conclude that the Blue Moon was originally made with crème de violette and then reimagined to market Crème Yvette.

Incidentally, blue moon is an astronomical term for the second of two full moons to occur in the same calendar month.

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AKA: Blue Devil Cocktail

Variant:

Aviation Cocktail

History:

This cocktail is said to have been created around 1940 by Oscar Tschirky at Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, New York, USA. Better known as "Oscar of the Waldorf", he was maître d'hôtel at Waldorf-Astoria and is also credited for inventing the Waldorf salad and Eggs Benedict. Although he never worked as a chef, capitalising on his reputation at the hotel, he also authored a cocktail book.

Nutrition:

One serving of Blue Moon Cocktail (1940's recipe) contains 181 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
20.69% alc./vol. (20.69° proof)
19.6 grams of pure alcohol

More Classic/vintage cocktails
More Floral (e.g. Elderflower spritz) cocktails

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 7 comments for Blue Moon Cocktail (1940's recipe).
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Cliff

30th December 2024 at 01:58

Well, don't use overproof/Navy strength gin. It took all the fun out of this cocktail. Followed the recipe as stated.

Simon Difford

30th December 2024 at 09:07

The recipe is for standard strength gin. Perhaps drop to 45ml (1½oz) for Navy strength gin.

Andy Luker

23rd June 2023 at 20:35

Is that the right picture? It's far more pink than the one I made or you'd expect from the ingredients

Simon Difford

24th June 2023 at 09:52

Did you use Creme Yvette?

Henry Duke

29th May 2023 at 03:03

There is actually an earlier version of this cocktail dating to at least as early as 1917. It consists of 2/3 dry gin, 1/3 french (dry) vermouth, a dash of orange bitters and a dash of crème yvette; the recipe also calls for it to be topped off with claret. Said recipe is from Hugo Ensslin's Recipe's for Mixed Drinks, 2nd edition (1917).

C N

11th March 2023 at 03:32

I have both Rothman & Winter Crème de Violette and Crème Yvette in my bar, so I made this twice, one with each. As much as I love R&W, it does not do this drink justice. The unanimous vote at the bar tonight is for Crème Yvette.

Wendy Pierce

6th March 2021 at 16:35

Interesting! I only said that because I've seen photographs of the original bottles and the color certainly looks different although of course it may have changed over this many years. I asked my father and he said that the current version tastes a lot better than the old one did. I've heard a few people complain about the color but I'm much more interested in the flavor. Creme Yvette in its current form is a masterpiece. My bottle of Rothman and winter sits untouched. ?

Wendy Pierce

6th March 2021 at 04:49

I believe that the original creme Yvette was a different color, and had inferior ingredients to the new one. That's why the color of the blue moon and aviation is wrong, but they taste a lot better than with creme de violette!

Simon Difford

6th March 2021 at 10:06

I'm not sure that's the case. I was working with Rob when he started his Creme Yvette revival project and he sort to replicate the original recipe. I've added to my notes above.

Anonymous

22nd February 2021 at 22:08

Many cocktails with egg whites in them require a dry shake first before adding the ice for a second shake. Why not do so with this one? (I'm new to mixology and still learning)

Simon Difford

23rd February 2021 at 07:18

This cocktail would also benefit from a dry shake. My omission - thanks for bringing to my attention. I have corrected the recipe above accordingly. I actually find a reverse dry shake (shake with ice first and then dry shake) works best.

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