Aviation Cocktail

The aviation cocktail.

So many things come to mind. First, why have I never tried this before. It would seem obvious, it has the word aviation in the title and it's purple, my favorite color. This really should have been a no brainer.

Backstory for those who are reading this blog for the first time.

Aviation is our life.

Actually, I take that back, we have several friends where both the husband and the wife are pilots, that's not us. But Hood has loved airplanes since before he can remember and the aviation world does dominate our life. I am unintentionally wearing an airplane related shirt right now and I first garnered respect for the guy when we were 16, he saw a jet fly overhead and he knew what model it was. If a plane flies over, the world stops for him.

Me on the other hand, I am not quite so sophisticated. In place of an airplane, I love the color purple.

When I was younger, my cousin Meg and I who are exactly six months apart would often get the same gifts, she would get pink and I would get purple. I've painted my bedroom different shades of purple over the years, was blown away by this really cool purple wall in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and when the purple iPhone came out, it was really exciting.

To be honest, it's not that I have to have everything purple, I like green and blue too, I just get so excited when something is purple. It's like a treat. It's like getting the purple gum ball. It's a small win.

The aviation cocktail is not a new thing, I always knew about it, I had just never tried it. I would always mention it to Hood and he would just brush it off like, "oh yeah, I've tried that." In my mind, I always thought it was the perfect combination of him and me, but between his apathy toward it, plus it not really being your standard gin and tonic, plus us not having the ingredients to make it at home, it had just never made the cut.

Well, the other day Hood and I celebrated our 5 year dating anniversary. Celebrated may be a generous term. The date is easy to remember because it is the last day of February....sometimes... and it was a pretty memorable story.

Hood had liked me for a while. Like, Laban from the Bible a while. This is not to make him sound desperate but more so decisive. I have no idea what he saw in me but I am thrilled he did. Well, that day, Aunt Sue managed to accidentally order two shamrock shakes that no one wanted solely because she kept reading the ad aloud, "How about a shamrock shake?", my dad backed into a tree with the car, and my mom convinced me to give Hood a chance, "he going to be a fighter pilot, he can't be that bad."

It all ended with Hood and I eating at an Irish pub, and on the drive home, him getting out of the car to yell because he scored the girl.

All this to say, it was the anniversary of this day and so we wanted to go the Irish pub. But it's Covid and the hours of the pub had changed so we instead went to play pool, another thing that we have done together for years. Playing pool, a thing in my family and his, is also one of the few things to do near Air Force bases that really don't have much else going on. And it's cheap.

Well, three pool halls later, one of which was Dave and Buster's who have gotten rid of their pool tables in lieu of a TV room, what the heck, like we need more TV and less actual activities, we finally scored a table at the Velvet Touch. I have a bulged disk in my back so watching me attempt to bend over to shoot was humorous, and instead I turned pool into an actual sport by doing a half squat to reach the table. So that lasted about 30 minutes before I was done.

So, looking for the next gig, what did we do, how about a new cocktail?

Well, in addition to our traditional restaurant being closed, most pool places being closed, our favorite liquor store had closed early as well. So, thanks to the Google, we discovered BevMart.

If you are reading this in any state that is not Hawaii or Alaska, this may seem like a normal place. We don't have big chain stores like BevMo or Total Wine here. Fine liquor stores with creative ingredients are hard to find and for the most part, don't exist. BevMart, despite its big name, is in a converted house on a street near Honolulu. But it was a great find.

Hood told me I could get what I wanted and so I decided that the aviation cocktail was going to finally happen. A bottle of creme de violette and Luxardo maraschino liqueur later, it was going to happen.

So my absolute favorite thing about the Aviation cocktail besides that fact that it is the perfect combination of Hood and me, airplane and purple, is that it literally tastes purple. I don't know if that is a recommendation that would entice people, but it is so spot on, you have try it.

The aviation cocktail is a combination of gin, lemon, maraschino liqueur, and creme de violette, It's super balanced, perfectly acidic, and above all, it tastes purple.

It's a gorgeous lilac color, served in the absolute best cocktail glasses, thank you Hood, and certainly worth an order on the menu if you see it, or worth making it if you have the ingredients on hand!

Try on for yourself!

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