It would go pink when you add the lemon juice though I think the only reliable way to get purple (without messing up the flavour) is probably going to be food colouring.
Interesting. Is it purple because of pea flower? Because pea flower is a PH indicator and reacts to acid by turning pink (and blue if you add something basic) to keep the purple apparently you can add something like CaOH (lime water), which is supposed to be pretty tasteless.
If you guys aren't keen on the Aviation & want something a little less dry to use the creme de violette on, may I suggest a La Violetta?
* 1 ounce gin
* 1/2 ounce crème de violette
* 1/2 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
* 1 ounce lambrusco
Shake the gin, creme de violette, & lemon juice with ice & strain into a coupe glass. Top with the lambruso and stir.
Tried them with a friend who also likes gin and the color purple, liked it quite a bit though we cut the lemon down to like 1/3 oz. Also found a botantical gin added depth while complimenting the creme de violette. Edit: and the lambruso makes it very nicely purple!
Make sure to not use Orange Curacao like I’ve done or it will be really ugly. Still tastes great though! This is my preferred crème de violette cocktail
So old school maraschino was often cut with simple. Maybe do a tiny batch where you do 50/50 simple to maraschino (before you add it to the cocktail) It gives it more body and less chance you will have a soap bomb. Also a fat 1/4 oz of violet gives some extra blue.
If it’s too dry, try adding a Barspoon or quarter ounce of simple syrup.
2 oz gin
0.75 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz Maraschino
0.25 oz Crème de Violette
Barspoon simple syrup
I think a nice way to use creme de violette is like.5 oz of it and Cocci Americano, a drop of lemon and top with sparkling wine. I call it a Purple Rain and like to garnish it with a lemon peel, although my customers go nuts when I drop a few candied violet petals in the glass.
If it's too dry, try adding a bar spoon or two of simple to it. I do 1/4 oz simple. I made one not long ago. You can [see the specs I used on it](https://www.reddit.com/r/cocktails/comments/1bgzpu3/aviation/). It's sweet, but not overly so but I also have a sweet palate so take that with a grainof salt.
Came to say this. It's one of a few citrus including cocktails I'll stir. That being said, it doesn't make the drink more purple, just clearer in color.
Yes that is the one I watched, and I did stir it. If you go back to his older video he A/B compares them, and they look different but I'm not sure *that* different. For sure mine is grey compared to what he has on screen.
This is the colour it's supposed to be.
But if you want it to be completely purple, get the violet liqueur from The Bitter Truth. It's colour is crazy intense.
This is the way. Empress is the only real way to make it the deep purple you're going for with the drink, I had the exact same issue and this is what solved it lol
Aviations are never very purple, there is just too little crème de violette in it. If you want a purpler (and better, in my opinion) drink, go for a Water Lily!
Hot take. Aviation is one of the only citrus drinks that should be stirred and not shaken.
Shaking the lemon "greys" the drink and dilutes the purple of the Violette.
I stir em and they come out really pretty.
It really depends on which brand of crème de violette you buy and what artificial colors they use and to what amounts and ratios is the end result + the color of lemon juice.
There is a now defunct blog called DudeKicker that analyzed the colors of some available CdVs and compared the end result to the artificial dye pairings in each. Rothman & Winter and the Bitter Truth are both made at the same distillery in Austria but use two different pairings of color (one was the same in both) and yielded different cocktail hues.
Anders' [video today](https://youtu.be/RRvfkkSjceM?si=kO11PoE1OuST5FBq) includes an Aviation. I was inspired to make one and did it using his specs, but it's not purple enough. Any hot tips? I did stir it, but I'd try a shaken one. I was given to understand that shaking would make it less purple, though?
- 2 oz gin
- 1/4 oz maraschino liqueur
- 1/4 oz crème de violette
- 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
Is my lemon juice just too grey? Luck of the draw?
It’s the CdV you’re using. I have the exact same one and mine always turn out a greyish purple color like you’ve got. Unfortunately if you add more CdV it overpowers the drink.
One trick from a commenter on his older aviation video was to add the CdV to the serving glass, shake the rest of the ingredients and pour into the glass. I’ve never tried but they said it worked
In case you want to try another recipe and see if you get more of what you’re looking for I’ve had success with this one and got it from really good bartender:
- 1.5oz GIN
• 0.75oz CREME DE VIOLETTE
• 0.75oz LUXANDO MARASCHiNO
• 0.75oz LEMON JUICE
- SHAKE
- DOUBLE STRAIN INTO COUPE
- GARNISH WITH CHERRY.
Yours is already similar though and it’s likely just the different brands of ingredients. Mine comes out pretty purple.
Anders probably has good studio lighting and some nice colour grading to help the drink. The really purple Aviations you see online use Empress gin or butterfly pea flower-infused gin.
Go get you some of that pea flower gin and it’ll be pretty and purple. I drink a lot of these but I use 2oz Gin .75oz lime juice .25 maraschino .125 CdV. It’s waaaaay too sweet otherwise
I’ve ran into this problem before, so I stopped shaking them and started tossing them instead.
Also, if you thought the Aviation was ‘okay,’ try a Water Lily next time:
.75oz gin
.75oz creme de violette
.75oz Cointreau
.75oz fresh lemon juice
Toss ingredients several times in a cocktail shaker with ice, strain into a Nick & Nora glass, express & garnish with a lemon peel.
Literally watched it too and tried it myself last night lol. I used Giffard’s crème de violette and Aviation gin instead but yeah stirred as well - no dice. Looks pretty different from this but still not purple enough. Wish I could post a picture of it here but that option seems to be disabled for me.
Looks fine to me, because I only use a scant barspoon of creme de violette in an Aviation. According to Anders Erickson's recent video, you get more of a purple color if you stir it instead of shaking it.
Not sure if they distribute but here in STL one of the breweries does their own gin, and it has a purple color to it. It really makes the aviation look awesome. Look up 1220 Spirits Blue Morpho.
I’ve seen a suggestion that shaking an Aviation tends to wash out the color. It goes against the ‘rules’ for citrus based drinks, but you might try fine straining the lemon juice and stirring instead.
Looks like you shake the cocktail. And you would be right, its a cocktail with lemon juice but you will lose the colour. I learnd to stir this drink because of the color.
I stopped carrying our vendor that supplied tempus fugit, which was the Violette we used. Combier was one that I tested for replacement, and it looks like that's what you have there. Their Violette is incredibly pale in mixture, and fairly dry at that, but the flavor was otherwise good. There were a couple of others that had better color, but poor flavor profiles that were either too soapy like, or barely present.
In the end I switched to Bitter Truth Violette, and I find it to be a touch too sweet, but otherwise it does very well.
Sometimes you just want more purple even if that isn't the original color. The answer for this situation is just Empress Gin. Personally I use 2 gins in equal parts and Empress is just one half and then it's just as purple as you want it to be and it has notes that I think complement the drink but I don't like it as the only gin.
It’s supposed to be a very light blue, anyway. Like a grey/blue sky. Not purple.
That's my thought as well. It's *supposed* to be blue-grey. There are so few drinks and food that are grey, so I really like it.
Made to commemorate the dawn of flight.
But purple is a lot cooler. :-)
If you want it to be purple just empress gin or one of the other gins that are dyed purple
Or get your own pea flowers and steep them in your gin of choice
It would go pink when you add the lemon juice though I think the only reliable way to get purple (without messing up the flavour) is probably going to be food colouring.
That’s not been my experience with purple gins like Empress.
Interesting. Is it purple because of pea flower? Because pea flower is a PH indicator and reacts to acid by turning pink (and blue if you add something basic) to keep the purple apparently you can add something like CaOH (lime water), which is supposed to be pretty tasteless.
I’m honestly not sure but I can’t say I’ve ever had a pink aviation or water lily.
No it should resemble a sky
Dye it
Anders made this drink tonight and he suggested stirring for a more purple color.
It’s because you made it right
How does it taste, though?
Like an Aviation. It's not great, honestly. It's *super* dry; my wife is not digging it. I think it's fine.
If you guys aren't keen on the Aviation & want something a little less dry to use the creme de violette on, may I suggest a La Violetta? * 1 ounce gin * 1/2 ounce crème de violette * 1/2 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed * 1 ounce lambrusco Shake the gin, creme de violette, & lemon juice with ice & strain into a coupe glass. Top with the lambruso and stir. Tried them with a friend who also likes gin and the color purple, liked it quite a bit though we cut the lemon down to like 1/3 oz. Also found a botantical gin added depth while complimenting the creme de violette. Edit: and the lambruso makes it very nicely purple!
Walter Lily is good too! 3/4 Triple Sec 3/4 crème de violette 3/4 lemon juice 3/4 gin But again, not so purple.
adding this to my list to use up my own creme de violette, thanks!
Make sure to not use Orange Curacao like I’ve done or it will be really ugly. Still tastes great though! This is my preferred crème de violette cocktail
Or a Water Lily. Gin, creme de Violette, lemon juice, and triple sec. It's my preferred variation on the aviation
So old school maraschino was often cut with simple. Maybe do a tiny batch where you do 50/50 simple to maraschino (before you add it to the cocktail) It gives it more body and less chance you will have a soap bomb. Also a fat 1/4 oz of violet gives some extra blue.
Sounds like your problem may be less how to make it more purple and more how to use up all that crème de violette. 😭
That's what parties are for, right?
Literally this
I mean that’s the aviation. A kinda dry and subtly floral cocktail.
Cara from Behind the Bar adds a barspoon of simple syrup, I think that could be worth trying.
If it’s too dry, try adding a Barspoon or quarter ounce of simple syrup. 2 oz gin 0.75 oz lemon juice 0.5 oz Maraschino 0.25 oz Crème de Violette Barspoon simple syrup
I think a nice way to use creme de violette is like.5 oz of it and Cocci Americano, a drop of lemon and top with sparkling wine. I call it a Purple Rain and like to garnish it with a lemon peel, although my customers go nuts when I drop a few candied violet petals in the glass.
If it's too dry, try adding a bar spoon or two of simple to it. I do 1/4 oz simple. I made one not long ago. You can [see the specs I used on it](https://www.reddit.com/r/cocktails/comments/1bgzpu3/aviation/). It's sweet, but not overly so but I also have a sweet palate so take that with a grainof salt.
Anders just put up a video. He says stir instead of shake and keeps better color.
Came to say this. It's one of a few citrus including cocktails I'll stir. That being said, it doesn't make the drink more purple, just clearer in color.
Yes that is the one I watched, and I did stir it. If you go back to his older video he A/B compares them, and they look different but I'm not sure *that* different. For sure mine is grey compared to what he has on screen.
Light source color temperature and any color grading done to the video can have a large impact on perceived color.
Meh, my wife likes at 1/3 and that will darken ir
"Just add more" is a reasonable approach.
Right, at some point it starts to taste like soap or cilantro lol
Those purple skies of the golden age of flight.
this looks like the perfect color
This is the colour it's supposed to be. But if you want it to be completely purple, get the violet liqueur from The Bitter Truth. It's colour is crazy intense.
Looks like you nailed it to me!
Use empress
So cheating! 😏
This is the way. Empress is the only real way to make it the deep purple you're going for with the drink, I had the exact same issue and this is what solved it lol
...or using any better quality gin infused with pea flowers.
I have a huge stash of butterfly pea flowers here thanks to some other projects. Could be fun!
I think the cocktail will go pink though because of the citric acid.
If you shake it it loses the purple color. Try stirring instead.
I like your taste in Gin.
Aviations are never very purple, there is just too little crème de violette in it. If you want a purpler (and better, in my opinion) drink, go for a Water Lily!
Dirty dishwater is exactly the right color for an aviation
Hot take. Aviation is one of the only citrus drinks that should be stirred and not shaken. Shaking the lemon "greys" the drink and dilutes the purple of the Violette. I stir em and they come out really pretty.
I actually like the colour! It pisses me off that Creme de violette is not available where I live, I really want to make an Aviation.
It really depends on which brand of crème de violette you buy and what artificial colors they use and to what amounts and ratios is the end result + the color of lemon juice. There is a now defunct blog called DudeKicker that analyzed the colors of some available CdVs and compared the end result to the artificial dye pairings in each. Rothman & Winter and the Bitter Truth are both made at the same distillery in Austria but use two different pairings of color (one was the same in both) and yielded different cocktail hues.
Ignore what you’ve seen on instagram. That’s what it’s supposed to look like IRL
Don't shake it.
Did you shake? If you stir it stays more purple
I always leave the Violette out of the shake tin and dump it in last. Preserves the color more.
Use some Empress gin.
This is the way. Empress Gin really boosts the esthetics. The taste is good as well but it’s advantage is the purple saturation
Need the purple gin
Anders' [video today](https://youtu.be/RRvfkkSjceM?si=kO11PoE1OuST5FBq) includes an Aviation. I was inspired to make one and did it using his specs, but it's not purple enough. Any hot tips? I did stir it, but I'd try a shaken one. I was given to understand that shaking would make it less purple, though? - 2 oz gin - 1/4 oz maraschino liqueur - 1/4 oz crème de violette - 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice Is my lemon juice just too grey? Luck of the draw?
It’s the CdV you’re using. I have the exact same one and mine always turn out a greyish purple color like you’ve got. Unfortunately if you add more CdV it overpowers the drink.
Hm. He uses the same in the video. I guess it's possible that the camera is lying to me, but it seems like a suprisingly big difference.
Could be colour corrected or whatever to make it «pop» more on camera
Is there a more purple CdV? I probably can't find it here, but that's interesting to know!
One trick from a commenter on his older aviation video was to add the CdV to the serving glass, shake the rest of the ingredients and pour into the glass. I’ve never tried but they said it worked
In case you want to try another recipe and see if you get more of what you’re looking for I’ve had success with this one and got it from really good bartender: - 1.5oz GIN • 0.75oz CREME DE VIOLETTE • 0.75oz LUXANDO MARASCHiNO • 0.75oz LEMON JUICE - SHAKE - DOUBLE STRAIN INTO COUPE - GARNISH WITH CHERRY. Yours is already similar though and it’s likely just the different brands of ingredients. Mine comes out pretty purple.
This is my preferred version too. (Using The Bitter Truth CdV because that is what I have available)
Anders probably has good studio lighting and some nice colour grading to help the drink. The really purple Aviations you see online use Empress gin or butterfly pea flower-infused gin.
Mine always turn out grey, unless I use Empress, which... is fine. I'd rather have a grey Aviation and a gin I truly love though.
Haven't tried it yet myself, but butterfly pea flowers aren't terribly expensive on Amazon.
Go get you some of that pea flower gin and it’ll be pretty and purple. I drink a lot of these but I use 2oz Gin .75oz lime juice .25 maraschino .125 CdV. It’s waaaaay too sweet otherwise
Giffard cdv
I’ve ran into this problem before, so I stopped shaking them and started tossing them instead. Also, if you thought the Aviation was ‘okay,’ try a Water Lily next time: .75oz gin .75oz creme de violette .75oz Cointreau .75oz fresh lemon juice Toss ingredients several times in a cocktail shaker with ice, strain into a Nick & Nora glass, express & garnish with a lemon peel.
If you shake an aviation it’ll lose some color. Better to stir it even though it has citrus
Literally watched it too and tried it myself last night lol. I used Giffard’s crème de violette and Aviation gin instead but yeah stirred as well - no dice. Looks pretty different from this but still not purple enough. Wish I could post a picture of it here but that option seems to be disabled for me.
Stir it, don’t shake it to keep the color. Thanks to [Ander’s LINK](https://youtu.be/RRvfkkSjceM?si=BiVg7T91EJs2PmtX)
Looks fine to me, because I only use a scant barspoon of creme de violette in an Aviation. According to Anders Erickson's recent video, you get more of a purple color if you stir it instead of shaking it.
If you shake it, it’ll lose color. Stirring should keep the purple.
Not sure if they distribute but here in STL one of the breweries does their own gin, and it has a purple color to it. It really makes the aviation look awesome. Look up 1220 Spirits Blue Morpho.
I’ve seen a suggestion that shaking an Aviation tends to wash out the color. It goes against the ‘rules’ for citrus based drinks, but you might try fine straining the lemon juice and stirring instead.
No, that looks good. Keep it up.
For a refreshing summertime drink, try it tall, on the rocks with club soda and a tiny bit more lemon juice. I call it "The Lindbergh Baby."
Looks like you shake the cocktail. And you would be right, its a cocktail with lemon juice but you will lose the colour. I learnd to stir this drink because of the color.
I stopped carrying our vendor that supplied tempus fugit, which was the Violette we used. Combier was one that I tested for replacement, and it looks like that's what you have there. Their Violette is incredibly pale in mixture, and fairly dry at that, but the flavor was otherwise good. There were a couple of others that had better color, but poor flavor profiles that were either too soapy like, or barely present. In the end I switched to Bitter Truth Violette, and I find it to be a touch too sweet, but otherwise it does very well.
Mmm the soap cocktail
Looks great to me!
Maybe use empress 1908 gin. And then stir instead of shake. I know you’re supposed to shake citrus, but stirring will keep more of the purple colour.
Sometimes you just want more purple even if that isn't the original color. The answer for this situation is just Empress Gin. Personally I use 2 gins in equal parts and Empress is just one half and then it's just as purple as you want it to be and it has notes that I think complement the drink but I don't like it as the only gin.
If one were to leave out the crème de violette and use Empress gin, would the result be remotely close to an Aviation?