Difford’s is similar but uses 1 3/4 Gin, 1/4 Creme de Violette, and no syrup. There’s a Difford’s app for IOS that’s pretty handy. He also has another Aviation recipe that has no violette, and it’s very tasty.
Hah! Interesting that they include simple syrup when most of the recipes I found online don’t mention it. Then again maybe that’s why mine have tasted different.
My vermouth range is usually between you two. Vermouth of choice is Dolin Dry (not the sweet Blanc). Freeze a 5oz cocktail glass. Drink is stirred in a metal cocktail shaker to lessen the temperature loss compared to glass. Strained with a julep strainer. When ambitious I stir with an instant reading thermometer, otherwise I use a chop stick. I don’t have a proper bar spoon. Lemon twist for the wife and usually an olive for me (Cerignola preferred). The wife insists on vodka, what can you do?
You can divorce her, for starters. 
That’s fantastic. I’m totally getting my wife 6 bottles of vodka for Christmas.
“I wanted to show my love for you with these six bottles of Gordon’s.”
Is this sarcasm, or self preservation with a hint of sarcasm.
Edit: son-in this environment it’s every gin drinker for itself. Especially, in the people’s republic of pa.
Made a Blood & Sand a couple of days ago. Thinking it would be too sweet, this was a gorgeous drink:
Equal parts:
Blended Scotch (Famous Grouse is recommended and that’s what we used)
Sweet Vermouth
Bitter Cherry Liquor
Orange Juice
Was a joke 
I would have at least bought her Tito’s if I was looking for a divorce; I’ve got standards, damnit!
This has been a lot of fun… although today’s puzzle had me going for an hour. The Alinea group teamed up with a “puzzle” team to make restaurant/bar themed puzzles on Instagram. Today’s prize was a set of Cocktail books from The Aviary.
Above is the link to the start of the rabbit hole; you can look at more recent posts if you want to catch up immediately.
Will have to try this. Of the several riffs off of the 1:1:1:1 cocktail, the Paper Plane is wonderful, but not at the top of my list. I would rank a Naked and Famous first and a Last Word second followed by a Paper Plane. I’m not much of a bourbon guy…always find it too sweet which explains why I generally find a Paper Plane delicious but a bit cloying.
Naked and Famous
.75 Mezcal Del Maguey Vida
.75 Aperol
.75 Yellow Chartreuse
.75 Lime Juice
Last Word
.75 Gin (I prefer Tanqueray, but this is a subjective thing)
.75 Green Chartreuse
.75 Luxardo Maraschino
.75 Lime Juice
As a side note…Amaro’s are so different, I find it interesting when most (me included) think of a Paper Plane as using Nonino but I do find folks using Ciocaro or other Amaro’s. Always weird to me.
Love all these drinks. One of the added benefits of equal parts cocktails is that you can order them at any bar that has the ingredients and know the drink will likely come out right, regardless of the bartender’s skill or experience.
Those three cocktails, along with Corpse Reviver #2, probably comprise 95% of the cocktails I’ve consumed over the past three or four years.
Have a bit of blended whisky to use up, and was looking for simple cocktails utilizing ingredients on hand. I ran across Blood and Sand, which is—
3/4 ounce Scotch whisky
3/4 ounce cherry brandy
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth
3/4 ounce orange juice
Orange peel for garnish
Stirred with ice, strained into cocktail glass
But having no cherry brandy or orange juice, I created this alternative, which I am enjoying…
40 ml whisky
20 ml sweet vermouth
Bar spoonful of syrup from the Luxardo Cherries jar
2 dashes of orange bitters
One Lux cherry
…and I made this on the rocks, just because.
Ohhh, sounds good, Sir!
Trying to find uses for the vermouth as it has a short shelf life
A Martinez next
That’s basically a “Rob Roy.”
The cherry syrup is the alteration, I guess.
Made a Naked & Famous last night that was deeeeelish (substituted Green for Yellow and Lemon for Lime).
My girlfriend is a vodka drinker but she has recently started to appreciate gin. A step in the right direction.
Here is a Clover Club I made for her recently.
I messed something up on this one, but more recent attempts have been much better.
She likes a strong drink and I typically make this with 4 oz gin, juice of 1 lemons, 1 egg white, 2 oz raspberry syrup (I make my own)
