Blue Moon Cocktail (1940's recipe)

How to make:

SHAKE all ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled glass.

Garnish:

Raspberries

AKA:

Blue Devil Cocktail

Comment:

A relation of the Aviation Cocktail, this drink features on the back label of Créme Yvette bottles dating from the 1940s. Now once again available, consequently this liqueur is more identified with the Blue Moon than crème de violette, which appears in some other versions of the Blue Moon.

When made with crème de violette (use ¾ shot) the drink is indeed a blue-grey colour, as befits its name. However, when made with Crème Yvette (you’ll only need a ½ shot) the drink is more pink than blue, so leading me to think that it was originally made with crème de violette.

Variant:

Aviation Cocktail

About:

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.

The Blue Moon cocktail was lost for decades, due to production of Créme Yvette ceasing in 1969, but thanks to Créme Yvette's 2010 relaunch, has been rediscovered. Incidentally, blue moon is an astronomical term for the second of two full moons to occur in the same calendar months.