Pisco Pilot

Now, folks—everyone should know that you shouldn’t drink and fly a plane. But you may be wondering what to do with your hands instead. Well I have the answer: paper planes. You can’t kill anyone in a paper plane. (Except if you try to get into one and go sailing out the window.) Maybe you haven’t made a plane in years. No sweat—you can find swell instructions from Alex’s Paper Airplanes. I found this site and knew I was in for hours of harmless cocktail time fun.

For a moment, I wondered if Alex would approve of having his planes plugged from a booze blog, but to my amazement and delight, Alex has a booze site too! How cool is that?




Pisco Pilot

• 2 oz pisco
• 1/2 oz maraschino
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1/4 oz or less crème de violette (optional)

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

This here’s the old Aviation with pisco instead of gin. Nice and bright with a little wine-like grape note. It works pretty well, though as usual, people will have different ideas about the amount of violette, if any. More candy than perfume here.

MxMo LVII: Flores de Mayo

Many thanks to Dave of The Barman Cometh, fellow Bay Area cocktailian and the host of this month’s Mixology Monday, Flores de Mayo. Dave invites us “to feature a cocktail that highlights a floral flavor profile or includes a floral derived ingredient, whether home-made or off the shelf.” I was already at that moment similarly inspired, thinking of the elusive scent of violets, of tequila, and the haunting nature of memory. Flores de mayo, flores para los muertos, La persistencia de la memoria and the arrow of time. And people wonder why I started drinking cocktails.



Arrow of Time

• 1 1/2 oz blanco tequila (Tenampa Azul)
• 1 oz Punt e Mes
• 1/4 oz crème de violette
• 1 dash Regans’ Orange Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Lemon twist.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

The violet should be kept subtle. You’re gonna be haunted by the persistence of memory one way or another so you might as well do it right.

Crème Yvette

I have my bottle of the reincarnated Crème Yvette. It is flower and fruit, and every shade of purple. It surpasses all expectations of richness, complexity and beauty. It is royal. The color is elusive and hard to photograph. While the prevailing hue seems to be from its four berry constituents, making a Blue Moon a lilac one, it picks up any hidden flashes of blue light in the room like an amethyst. A touch in a cocktail transforms it, refracting through gin, citrus, vermouth, even cacao. A deep and mysterious spirit.



Of course, after a small glass of awestruck wonder, I whipped up some pretty sweet drinks.

First up was the Blue Moon, so good with Rothman & Winter’s awesome lavender-blue Crème de Violette. As noted, Yvette made for a warmer purple than the Violette. Dr. Cocktail says that an egg white is a nice touch, so I added one white for two drinks, which gave it a lunar translucence. Maybe if I upped the egg, it would have foamed interestingly too. The proportions, minus the egg, came from the version on the official site.



Blue Moon

• 1 1/2 oz London dry gin
• 3/4 oz Crème Yvette
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1 egg white

Dry shake until egg is blended, then add ice, shake and strain through a fine mesh strainer into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: COMPOSITE

After that, I tried the Dr. Cocktail version of 2 oz gin, 1/2 oz Yvette or Violette, 1/2 oz lemon, but I think I prefer those proportions with Crème de Violette. As my housemate notes, there’s something over-the-top about the first version that suits the Yvette better.

We also tried a vermouth version from the CocktailDB. Really elegant.

Blue Moon Variation

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 3/4 dry vermouth
• 1/4 Crème Yvette
• 1 dash orange bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: COCKTAILDB

Last but not least was one adapted from the Crème Yvette site and also found in the CocktailDB, the Perpetual. This is all vermouth and liqueurs and begged for some gin, so I gave it some. It was the standout, don’t-miss, surprise hit drink of the set.

The Perpetual Fog

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz sweet vermouth
• 1/2 oz dry vermouth
• 1/2 oz Crème Yvette
• 1/4 oz light Crème de Cacao

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE



Very warm thanks to the awesome Robert Cooper for bringing this great liqueur to us, and thanks to all the cocktailians who kept plugging for its return.

The Aviation

Today's cocktail is the Aviation. It's a good thing I'm not trying to fly a plane tonight.

There are two basic versions of this old favorite: one with creme de violette, one without. I like both. The plainer one is like moonlight caught in a glass, and has a Saint-Exupéry-like delicacy that works especially well with Bombay gin. The creme de violette one is reported to resemble the blue sky, and it does, if your blue sky happens to be pale violet at that moment. I prefer to add only a little violette--enough to turn the drink silver, the color of Jazz Age flying machines and Art Deco technophilia. (I also like to run the lemon juice through a fine strainer for a more uniform effect.)

1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz maraschino liqueur
1/2 oz lemon juice
Approx. 1 tsp creme de violette

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.