Aviation
45 ml Gin, 15 ml Maraschino liqueur, 15 ml Lemon juice, 7.5 ml Crème de violette, 1 Maraschino cherry
Photo: Bees Knees Cocktail by Runskifish · CC BY-SA 4.0 · All credits
Ingredients
- 50 ml Jigger The large side of a standard jigger, filled to the top: 50 ml, with 25 ml on the other side. Gin
- 20 ml Spoons A tablespoon and a teaspoon. Lemon juice
- 20 ml Spoons A tablespoon and a teaspoon. Honey syrup - Two parts honey to one part hot water, stirred until it runs
- 1 twist Lemon twist (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 the gin, lemon and honey with ice and strain into a coupe.
Method
- Make the honey syrup first - equal spoons of honey and hot water is plenty for two drinks.
- Shake the gin, lemon juice and honey syrup with ice for 12 seconds.
- Strain into a chilled coupe and twist a strip of lemon peel over the top.
Serve it
Bee's Knees
Prohibition was a hard time to be a bartender, and an even harder one to be a bottle of gin: the stuff people could get hold of was rough enough to strip paint, so it was mixed with whatever was sweet and to hand. Honey, lemon and a good shake turned out to be the loveliest answer of the lot, and the name was 1920s slang for the very best of something.
Getting it right
Cold honey is thick and will not mix, which is why it is made into a syrup before it goes anywhere near a shaker. Stir two spoonfuls of honey into one of just-boiled water and let it cool; the syrup keeps in the fridge for a fortnight and quietly improves every sour you make. If your honey is dark and bossy, use a little less than the recipe says.
Tasting notes
Soft and round, with the honey smoothing out the corners of the gin and the lemon keeping it from being pudding. There is a flowery note at the end that is the whole point of using gin rather than vodka.
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