There is a new cocktail in my life. My friend Joe introduced it to me and once it was in my radar I noticed that it was popping up at the trendiest bars and swankest cocktail parties in L.A. It's funny how that works!

But calling it new is just plain wrong. Because it is a classic cocktail whose previous heyday was in the 1930's

It's a rather glamorous little tippler with a deservedly glamorous name: The Aviation Cocktail.

I imagine its name could have come from the fascination at the time with the heroics of aviating pioneers like Howard Hughes, and Amelia Earhart. But I also read that the early commercial airline travelers needed all the chutzpah they could muster just to travel by plane. Their chutzpah may have come from this particular cocktail.

But to further muddy the historical waters (or maybe I should say cloud the chronoscopic skies) I have been able to confirm that The Aviation existed quite a few years before Howard Hughes was setting records and winning flying awards.