The Aviation was created by Hugo Ensslin, head bartender at the Hotel Wallick in New York, in the early twentieth century. The first published recipe for the drink appeared in Ensslin's 1916 Recipes for Mixed Drinks. Ensslin's recipe called for 1½ oz. El Bart gin, ¾ oz. lemon juice, 2 dashes maraschino liqueur, and 2 dashes crème de violette, a violet liqueur which gives the cocktail a pale purple color. Omitting the cherry liquor changes the drink into a blue moon which is a grey color.

Harry Craddock's influential Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) omitted the crème de violette, calling for a mixture of two-thirds dry gin, one-third lemon juice, and two dashes of maraschino. Many later bartenders have followed Craddock's lead, leaving out the difficult-to-find violet liqueur.[1]
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Foto: Urbanfever.ro

Aviation:

Gin 2 oz
Maraschino liqueur 1 oz
Fresh squeezed lemon juice 1/2 oz

  • Coupe
  • Shake Strain
  • Cherry
Wonderful drink this is, yet Ensslin's ratios don't fit modern palate anymore. For me and for people that understand how ingredients are supposed to work is just fine, but for the average guest is too dry and sour. It took me a while to gather intelligence from people that ordered this drink and after a bit of fine tuning this is the formula that seems to be unanimously accepted. But not quite. You see, there is no universal formula that will work no matter what. People are very different, so are their tastes.
Regarding the creme de violette I couldn't get my hands on it and Parfait amour isn't pleasing enough, plus, depending on the brand Parfait amour is a blend that contains violets alongside other ingredients.

Now we shall watch and learn from Brooke Arthur which came up with a way better formula than mine.



References: 1. Wikipedia