“There are a lot of gins out there that hit you directly with powerful herbal notes,” explains Christian Krogstad, founder of House Spirits Distillery and distiller of Aviation American Gin. “With Aviation, we were going for less of the bright, ‘green’ flavors and more of the ‘brown’ flavors—the earthier notes.”
Say juniper-forward gins are conversational: this one is a covert exchange under the breath. The juniper is there, but it’s muted with less common components: cardamom, lavender, sarsaparilla and dried orange peel among them. Aviation is a quirky, quality-oriented introvert, which is maybe what makes it seem so Northwest. That said, it truly shines in a cocktail. The 35 batches it took the team to get the proportions perfect resulted in a spirit strong enough to stand alongside fresh, flavorful mixers without hogging the spotlight. It can certainly be sipped solo, but try it with local honey and lemon in a Bees Knees, or alongside Northwest blackberries in the Muddled Blackberry Gimlet (these and more on the Aviation website) to fully understand the 97-point rating from Wine Enthusiast.
