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Cocktails with Cai

After a week of vodka-cokes and Jägerbombs, Fresher’s Week will soon be but a distant memory — leaving most of you not-quite-so refreshed after all. Some of the resourceful amongst you will have already noticed the dearth of cocktail bars here in Oxford, and I’m here as a faithful guide, popping back throughout your first term with my sumptuous selection of the finest cocktails around. Yet this week’s cocktail isn’t your average bop-at-Carbon fare — after a whole week of tramping up and down that veritable nightclub strip that is Park End St, take it easy with the Aviation.

The Aviation is one of the many cocktails to have featured in a year’s worth of columns in the famed Savoy Cocktail Book compiled by Harry Craddock. It originated in a New York hotel in the early 20th century, yet with its  European-influenced gin and crème de violette, you shouldn’t be tricked into thinking this is only for the Yankophiles amongst you. But it turns out that crème de violette isn’t the easiest ingredient to source, and so soon after its creation, the crème de violette was replaced by the maraschino liqueur, which remains an official ingredient to this day.

If by some trick of fate you come across some crème de violette, do remember to add a few dashes. This ingredient is what gives the cocktail its signature blue tint — the Aviation being one of the few blue drinks in life that will actually turn out to be pleasant rather than completely vile.

This delicate lilac cocktail won’t be found under the glaring lights of Camera or Bridge. In fact, you’ll have to make a trip up to Angel’s on Little Clarendon Street to find this little number. Served with a maraschino cherry, this is a cocktail to remember — even if most of the week wil l soon be no more than a blur…

2 measures gin
1 measure lemon juice
1 measure maraschino

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