Your aviation cocktail can't take flight? Try a layover

A friend recently mentioned that his favorite cocktail was the aviation, a sweet-and-sour gin and maraschino cocktail he'd had once — apparently expertly made — at a bar.

[...] he was so smitten with this drink, he'd asked the bartender for the recipe.

[...] I decided to improvise, aiming to retain the floral tones, as well as the lemony sweet-and-sour notes.

For that, I substituted a combination of elderflower liqueur and ginger liqueur (which gave my cocktail a refreshing snap).

The resulting cocktail — which I dubbed "the layover" — was just as refreshing as the original, minus the fussy ingredient.