The Aviation

One of the first vintage cocktails I ever made was The Aviation:

• 2.50 ounces gin
• 0.75 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 2 or 3 dashes maraschino liqueur

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist

I first heard about the Aviation last year while watching The Blacklist, an NBC television show. In one episode, Raymond Reddington takes agent Elizabeth Keen to Montreal where he orders an Aviation cocktail for her. The drink they present was a dark blue color, and he remarked “It’s from the ’20s, tastes like spring, doesn’t it?”

Vowel Cocktail

Presenting one of the odder drinks in the book, the Vowel Cocktail:

• 1.0 ounce Scotch
• 1.0 ounce sweet vermouth
• 0.5 ounce orange juice (preferably fresh squeezed)
• 0.5 ounce kümmel (Gilka)
• 1 or 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass.

Okay, this is an odd one. Scotch cocktails are unusual (although the Blood and Sand is one of my favorites) and I’d never heard of kümmel before, but as I am determined to make all of the cocktails in the book, I put it on the shopping list.

The Japalac Cocktail

Just because it looked pretty in the picture, I decided to make the Japalac Cocktail:

• Juice of 1/4 orange
• 0.75 ounce dry vermouth
• 0.75 ounce rye whiskey
• 1 teaspoon raspberry syrup

Combine in an iced cocktail shaker, and shake and strain into a small cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

I liked this drink. It is slightly sweet due to the syrup but it complements the rye well.

Picon Punch

After three long months, I was finally able to make an authentic Picon Punch:

• 1.0 teaspoon real pomegranate grenadine
• 2.5 ounces Amer Picon
• Soda Water
• 1.0 ounce brandy

Fill a collins glass with crushed ice. Add the real pomegranate grenadine and Amer Picon. Fill with soda water. Float brandy on top.

I had a lot of issues with this drink.

The first was getting Amer Picon. The French word “Amer” is similar to the Italian “Amaro” and it is used to describe a strong, herbal flavored liqueur. Amer Picon is supposed to have a stronger orange flavor than most Amaro, and while it is called for in a number of vintage cocktails, it is very hard to get “authentic” Amer Picon. Always hard to obtain in the States, The House of Picon radically changed the recipe in the 1970s, halving the proof, and thus modern Amer Picon can’t be used for that authentic experience.

Honeymoon Cocktail

I was looking for some sort of drink for Valentine’s Day when I found the Honeymoon Cocktail:

• 2.0 ounces Calvados
• 0.5 ounce Bénédictine
• 0.5 ounce orange curaçao
• 0.5 ounce lemon juice

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a flamed lemon twist.

The book states that this cocktail was made famous at the Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles.

I have a great memory of the Brown Derby. My friend Howard’s graduation party was held in a private room there. Being a country boy now in the big city, I was eager to try out all sorts of new things. I can remember ordering the escargot, and for my main course I had sweetbreads. The salad course was Caesar salad, which I had never had before.

The Millionaire

The one time this phrase may actually work, “Bartender, make me a Millionaire”:

• 1.50 ounces Myers’s Original Dark Rum
• 0.75 ounce sloe gin
• 0.75 ounce apricot brandy
• juice of one fresh lime (1 to 1.5 ounces)

Shake vigorously in an iced cocktail shaker. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Okay, so I stole that line from Dr. Cocktail, and while he ended his recipe with it, I decided to use it at the beginning, so they are as different as a Martini and a Gibson.

Golden Dawn

After the Calvados Cocktail it seemed logical to explore the cocktail it was compared to, the Golden Dawn:

• 0.75 ounce (or 1.0 ounces) Calvados
• 0.75 ounce (or 1.0 ounces) dry gin
• 0.75 ounce (or 0.5 ounce) apricot brandy (Marie Brizard Apry)
• 0.75 ounce (or 0.5 ounce) orange juice
• Pomegranate grenadine

Combine all ingredients except the pomegranate grenadine and shake like crazy in an iced cocktail shaker; strain into a cocktail glass. Drop a stemless cherry with no pick into the drink as a garnish. Dribble a little real pomegranate grenadine through the drink. Do not stir.

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