Water Lilly

Crème de violette (violet liqueur) is an aromatic experience, especially if you give it some space. And that is what this take on the classic Aviation Cocktail does. Leave out Luxardo cherry liqueur, add Cointreau instead, use equal measures, and you get the Water Lilly.

The drink is a sour with strong floral and fruity notes. It's like a White Lady with flowers in her hair. A charming, afternoon drink and aperitif.

2 cl gin

2 cl Cointreau

2 cl crème de violette

2 cl lemon juice

Shake the ingredients with ice. Strain into a coupe glass. If you must, garnish with an orange twist.

The drink was created by Richard Boccato in New York 2007.

Pall Mall Martini

Need a cocktail without the sour element? Try this old-school cocktail that shows you what a cocktail was like in the 1920s. It's a perfect martini with a gentle hint of chocolate and orange bitters. By the way, a perfect martini is a martini that combines sweet and dry vermouth.

3 cl gin

3 cl sweet vermouth

3 cl dry vermouth

0.5 cl white crème de cacao

1 dash orange bitters

Shake the ingredients with ice, and strain into a coupe glass.

The recipe is found in Harry Craddock's famed book, The Savoy Cocktail Book, from 1930. Mr. Craddock bartended the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel, London, from 1920 to 1938. 

A later version of the Pall Mall uses white crème de menthe, taking the drink in another direction altogether.

Aviation Cocktail

Violets are synonymous with spring, and this cocktail gets its pale blue colour from a violet liqueur, in French called crème de violette. Think cherries and violets, and you are on the right track. Add lemon juice and you've got an aromatic and a pleasingly floral, perfumed drink that is not too sweet and lets the gin perform its wonders.

The Aviation cocktail was conceived in New York during the first decade of the twentieth century by a bartender at the Hotel Wallick called Hugo Ensslin.

Crème de violette was created when the Decadent Movement was its peak in the final decades of the 19th century. That's why its colour signals fin-de-siècle decadence.

3.5 cl gin

1 cl Luxardo cherry liqueur

0.5 cl crème de violette

1 cl lemon juice

Shake the ingredients with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass.

Buying a bottle of crème de violette may take you quite some time. You can get the same colouring from Crème Yvette or Parfait Amour, but the flavours are different.

Red Moon over Manhattan

Before starting on the lighther drinks of spring, let's try a drink that has red wine as its main protagonist with bourbon in a minor role. The result is a relaxed, low-alcohol libation that works well any time of day. Surprisingly, the red wine highlights the pleasing, aromatic make-up of bourbon.

As the name indicates, this is a take on the classic Manhattan cocktail which blends bourbon (or rye) whiskey with sweet vermouth and angostura bitters.

6 cl red wine

1.5 cl bourbon whiskey

1.5 cl simple syrup

Shake the ingredients with ice and strain into a glass of your choice. If you find the drink too sweet, go easy on the simple syrup.