Bee's Knees
50 ml Gin, 20 ml Lemon juice, 20 ml Honey syrup, 1 Lemon twist
Photo: Aviation Cocktail · All credits
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 6 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 270 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 270 ml line. Gin
- 90 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) and one small side (25 ml) of a standard jigger, plus a tablespoon. Maraschino liqueur
- 90 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) and one small side (25 ml) of a standard jigger, plus a tablespoon. Lemon juice
- 45 ml Jigger One small side (25 ml) of a standard jigger, plus a tablespoon and a teaspoon. Crème de violette - A barspoon will do if you only want a hint of colour (optional)
- 6 cherries Maraschino cherry (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Shake everything hard with ice and strain into a chilled coupe.
Method
Pitcher (6 drinks)Pitcher (6 drinks) - about 498 ml of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Chill a coupe while you get the shaker out.
- Add the gin, maraschino, lemon juice and crème de violette to a shaker with plenty of ice.
- Shake hard for 12 seconds - this one wants a good chill and a little dilution.
- Double strain into the coupe and drop in a cherry.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Aviation
Hugo Ensslin put this on the menu of the Hotel Wallick in New York around 1916, back when air travel was a novelty and a drink named after it must have felt impossibly modern. It then vanished for the best part of a century, mostly because nobody could buy crème de violette, and came back the moment the liqueur did.
Getting it right
The violet is the whole argument and the whole risk. Without it you have a perfectly nice gin sour; with too much you have a glass of perfume, so start with a barspoon and add a little more next time if you missed the flowers. If your bottle has gone a muddy brown, that is the colouring fading rather than the flavour - use it anyway.
Tasting notes
Cherry and almond from the maraschino, juniper underneath, and lemon holding it all upright. It is a soft, pale, grown-up sort of drink - the one to make when somebody says they do not really like gin.
More Gin cocktails
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50 ml Gin, 25 ml Lemon juice, 12.5 ml Simple syrup, 15 ml Crème de mûre, 2 berries Blackberry
Clover Club
45 ml Gin, 15 ml Lemon juice, 15 ml Raspberry syrup, 1 egg white, 1 Raspberry