1940s — The Cocktails — Beyond Reproach

2 ounces rye whiskey
1/2 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 ounce orange juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 ounce (real) grenadine *see note
Garnish: maraschino cherries and an orange slice

Add the rye whiskey, lemon and orange juices and grenadine to a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled. Strain into a tall glass with ice and garnish with cherries and an orange slice

*note: Real pomegranate-based grenadine has a much nicer flavor than the bright red sugar syrup from the supermarket.

The origin stories for many historic cocktails can be sometimes be difficult to trace or confirm, but the Ward Eight isn’t one of those cocktails.

The Ward Eight is one of, if not the, most popular cocktail ever created in Boston, Massachusetts. It was conceived in 1898 at the Locke-Ober Café to celebrate the election of Martin M. Lomasney to the state legislature. Lomasney was a politician who wielded considerable power in Boston for 40 years, serving as a state senator and representative, as well as a political “boss” in the city’s eighth ward (hence the name). Some stories point out that it’s odd that Lomasney was so sure of he’d win before election day that he had the bar create a new cocktail just for his victory party. Rumor has it he had fixed the election.

We’ll never know for sure, but we do know that the Ward Eight is essentially just a riff on a rye Whiskey Sour sans egg white. You substitute some of the lemon juice for orange juice and swap out the simple syrup for grenadine.

While we do know when and where this cocktail was invented, the recipe itself wasn’t actually written down at the time, so the exact recipe is disputed and there are some variations on it. The most popular recipe is a mix of rye whiskey, lemon and orange juices, and grenadine. Most recipes out there seem to be very similar but some omit the orange juice.

Many modern bartenders today will serve this straight up in a chilled coupe or cocktail glass, but when it was first invented it would have been served over ice in a tall Collins glass.

2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce maraschino liqueur (preferably Luxardo)
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/4 ounce crème de violette *see note
Luxardo Maraschio cherries (optional garnish)

Add the gin, maraschino liqueur, lemon juice, & crème de violette to a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake until frosty and strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

*note: We recommend Rothman & Winter brand crème de violette because it’s made the traditonal way with natural ingredients. We tried this cocktail with another brand that used artificial flavors and colors, and it was, frankly, terrible.
If you can’t find crème de violette, you can also use another violet flavored liqueur called crème Yvette.

The recipe for the Aviation was first published by Hugo Ensslin in his 1916 book “Recipes for Mixed Drinks” but it was likely invented a bit before that. It contains gin, lemon juice, maraschino liqueur and a violet flavored liqueur called crème de violette, which gives the cocktail it’s purple color.

This cocktail was popular in New York in the 20s but when the recipe was included in the famous “Savoy Cocktail Book” in 1930, it’s popularity spread. Unfortunately, the recipe in that book left of the crème de violette. By the 1940s the Savoy recipe without the crème de violette was probably the most popular version of this cocktail, but we think the original recipe is much more fun & interesting.

Crème de violette was discontinued in the 1960s, but a spirits company called Rothman & Winter found the original recipe and brought it back in 2007.