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
Measures below are multiplied for 12 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 600 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 600 ml line. Gin
- 240 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 240 ml line. Lemon juice
- 240 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 240 ml line. Honey syrup - Two parts honey to one part hot water, stirred until it runs
- 12 twists 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
Batch (12 drinks)Batch (12 drinks) - about 1.08 l 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.
- 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
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.
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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