Name: Aviation Cocktail (Difford's recipe)
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 52.5 ml Gin; 15 ml Maraschino liqueur; 7.5 ml Crème de violette; 15 ml Lemon juice; 7.5 ml Chilled water

Aviation Cocktail (Difford's recipe)
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Aviation Cocktail (Difford's recipe) image

Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 ³⁄₄ oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
¹⁄₂ oz	Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
¹⁄₄ oz	Rothman & Winter Crème de Violette Liqueur
¹⁄₂ oz	Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₄ oz	Chilled water omit if using wet ice

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist (& optional sugar rim).
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS lemon 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

Cocktail of the day:

17th December 2025 is The aeroplane's birthday

Review:

Citrus, floral gin with a slightly sour finish.

The recipe above has been my preferred recipe for some years. However, in early 2020, I decided that the maraschino and violet were overly dominant so in a quest for harmony I reduced these to allow botanical gin notes to emerge. I then rebalanced with 5ml sugar:
- 45 ml Dry gin
- 12.5 ml Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
- 5 ml Crème de violette
- 15 ml Lemon juice
- 5 ml Sugar syrup
- 10 ml Chilled water (omit if wet ice)
Thanks to the emails and comments below, I came to my senses and reverted to my original recipe.

View readers' comments

Variant:

Blue Moon; Clean Aviation (vodka-based); Takumis Aviation

History:

An adaptation of Hugo R. Ensslin's Aviation Cocktail from his 1916 Recipes for Mixed Drinks by yours truly.

AVIATION COCKTAIL
1/3 Lemon Juice
2/3 El Bart Gin
2 dashes Maraschino
2 dashes Crème de Violette
Shake well in a mixing glass with cracked ice, strain and serve.
Hugo R. Ensslin, 1916

More cocktails by Hugo R. Esslinn

Nutrition:

One serving of Aviation Cocktail (Difford's recipe) contains 173 calories

Alcohol content:

1.5 standard drinks
21.06% alc./vol. (21.06° proof)
20.5 grams of pure alcohol

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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 55 comments for Aviation Cocktail (Difford's recipe).
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Frederic D.

2nd June at 22:06

I just made a riff on the Aviation from Sother Teague's book, "I'm Just Here for the Drinks": 1 Oz gin, 1 Oz Becherovka, 0.5 Oz lemon, 0.25 Oz Maraschino, 2 dashes ginger bitters.
I really enjoyed this drink. The gin is still present, particularly on the swallow. The clove and cinnamon notes of the Becherovka show up in the mid-palate, the Maraschino does nor dominate at all. I might consider adding 0.25 Oz of simple syrup to better suit my palate, as I think the Becherovka is a bit less sweet than Violette, but overall it is a very good variation.

Frederic D.

2nd June at 22:10

Follow up: 1 teaspoon of 2:1 simple really brought out the baking spice notes in this drink, and would bump its rating a notch or two for me.

1 reply

Mark

24th April at 01:41

While I like bone dry cocktails I do find the addition of a teaspoon of rich simple syrup a better crowd pleaser. Call it sacrilegious, but most people do prefer it just a tad bit sweeter. Also using the Bitter truth violet liqueur gives it a stunning aquamarine hue, just as long as the lemon juice isn’t too yellowish.

John CARR

26th March at 12:41

Tried the suggested water dilution with dry ice, which did open up the flavours, but lost intensity of the violette in particular. Although it’s not the freshest bottle so could bed influencing. I’d go 5ml max myself.

John CARR

19th March at 14:09

A while since I have visited this recipe, and so many visitors in between: devotees at the altar. Something quite special with the combination of sour sweet, herbal and citrusy. Regarding the soul. I ran out of lemon peel so used light sprays of lime and lemon as garnish.

david77

20th February at 18:46

I like the base spirit to standout in my cocktails. So I increased the gin to 2 parts, and decreased the maraschino and creme de violet liquors to 1/4 parts each (equal parts). I also stirred instead of shaking in order to preserve the violet color that is lost in shaking. Stirring also seems to produce a richer flavor. I also dropped a Maraschino cherry on the bottom of my glass. It made for a nice after cocktail treat 😋.

Helen Clipsom

19th January at 23:58

A favourite of mine but (oh the sacrelige) I used to make it with parma violets gin (either Imaginaria or Miss Mollies, can't remember now) in the creme de violette measure, plus a teaspoon of the liquid from a jar of maraschino cherries as well as the maraschino liqueur.

Stephen Broughall

11th January at 00:42

In my haste to imbibe I used Haymans Old Tom gin rather than a London dry. I think it made for a smoother version. Also agree that a bit of chilled water helps bring out the cocktail.

Rachel L

14th December 2024 at 18:25

I used what I could get my hands on: Antica Distilleria Quaglia Violetta Liqueur as Creme de Violette is no where to be found. I added some syrup from Amarena Fabbri. David Selle's comment of adding the violette to the glass first and shaking the rest resulted in a delightful cocktail.

I tried it with both lime and lemon juice and prefer the lime (same with the 20th Century).