On The Avenue and beyond

The Avenue is another of those cocktails requiring "exotic" ingredients. No, not the "orange flower water", although some folks might have trouble finding that. I refer, instead, to Passion Fruit Juice. (Or nectar. Or Puree. Or... ) I spent an afternoon running around searching for this ingredient. Whole Foods *used* to stock it. Doesn't anymore. Closest I could come was Passion Fruit Orange Juice concentrate in the frozen section of my favorite grocery, Piazzas Fine Foods.

So, I tried it with that.

1 oz bourbon (I used Jim Beam)
1 oz Calvados
1 oz passion fruit juice (I used passionfruit orange juice)
1 dash grenadine (I used Stirrings Real Pomegranate Grenadine)
1 dash orange flower water

The recipe calls for it to be garnished with "a carnation boutonniere". Yeah. How precious. I went wihtout the boutonierre. Eventually, deciding it was too smooth and sweet with no bite, we added a twist of lemon and then a dash of lemon bitters. Too late, I read that if you substitute for the passionfruit juice, that you probably want to skip the grenadine and add a dash of lemon juice instead. I think trying it that way will make it quite refreshing and summery.

We skipped the Aviation - we're both fans and love it. We make it the old way with both Maraschino *and* Creme de Violette. It's one of our favorite "hot-tub" cocktails. Beautifully pale blue, tasty, with enough tantalizing hints of florals and botanicals and enough tartness to not be cloying. It's a simple enough cocktail too -

2 1/2 oz gin
3/4 oz lemon juice (fresh is best of course)
a couple dashes maraschino
a couple dashes violet liqueur (creme de violette)
lemon twist garnish
(I often add a cherry as well.)

 The Barbara West is a cocktail I had high hopes for. Gin, sherry, lemon juice, angostura bitters? What's not to like. Unfortunately, it was too much sherry and also too lemon tart.

2 oz gin
1 oz sherry
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
dash Angostura bitters

 I'll have to try this again with a more forward gin (I used Gordons) and less lemon juice, to see if we can get the balance right. It has potential.