A gin sour turned pale violet, served cold and straight up, with the brightness of lemon set against the cherry-pit nuttiness of maraschino. A whisper of floral crème de violette tints the glass and perfumes each sip, while the gin keeps everything crisp and dry beneath the fruit.
Garnish: Maraschino Cherry
Shaken · Coupe · Up
add
Combine the gin, maraschino liqueur, lemon juice, and crème de violette in a shaker.
shake
Shake hard with cracked ice until well chilled.
strain
Double-strain into a chilled coupe, served straight up.
garnish
Optionally drop in a maraschino cherry.
The recipe first saw print in 1916, when Hugo Ensslin, head bartender at New York's Hotel Wallick, included it in his book Recipes for Mixed Drinks, calling for two parts gin to one of lemon with two dashes apiece of maraschino and crème de violette. As the violet liqueur became hard to find, Craddock's 1930 Savoy version left it out altogether. Ensslin's complete formula only came back into wide circulation after crème de violette reappeared in American stores in 2007, and the IBA now lists the drink among its official cocktails.