Flights of Fancy: The Long, Strange Backstory of Lufthansa’s Latest In-Flight Cocktail
Fans of interesting drinks at 35,000 feet got good news last year when German airline Lufthansa announced the arrival of Avionic, a custom in-flight aperitif. Developed with help from award-winning bartender Sven Riebel of Frankfurt’s Seven Swans & the Tiny Cup in partnership with the historic Ziegler distillery, the new 18 percent ABV spirit was described in press releases as “your new favorite drink on board” — at least for those with tickets in business class.
According to Ziegler spokesperson Alexandra Hund, the drink wasn’t meant to be an imitation of any of the famous Italian red aperitifs.
“We decided to make the bitter notes out of marigold,” she says, citing the many wild meadows near the distillery’s location in the half-timbered town of Freudenberg, about 50 miles east of Cologne. Cherry notes were also worked into the recipe, in a nod to the distillery’s best-selling wild cherry liqueur. “We wanted to be something different. We wanted to have our tradition, our heritage, from Germany and from Freudenberg.”
A custom in-flight aperitif served with craft tonics might sound like it is just the newest entry to the in-flight cocktail and spirits arms race. But in fact, Lufthansa’s Avionic is not so much “news” as it is “renewed.” The German airline’s latest drink is at least the third version of a custom in-flight spirit it has announced in just the last two decades. And before that, the airline’s original “Lufthansa Cocktail” dates back even further, at least to the mid-’50s, though insiders say that drink’s origins are probably even older.
Flavor From the ‘Mad Men’ Era
Avionic may be a new recipe, but the airline made a point of connecting the drink to its history, hailing it as “an honorable successor to the distinctive Lufthansa Cocktail of the 1950s.” The original apricot- and orange-inflected liqueur produced at the Mampe distillery in Berlin launched under the Lufthansa Cocktail name in 1955, lasting for a couple of decades before it disappeared. As a sweet, fruit-forward, 30 percent ABV spirit most often served with soda water or sparkling wine, it would have been a fairly atypical cocktail for travelers coming from the U.S., according to David Wondrich, author of “The Comic Book History of the Cocktail: Five Centuries of Mixing Drinks and Carrying On.”
“Americans would have looked at that and rolled their eyes,” he says. “There’s not enough booze in it.”
However, the old Lufthansa Cocktail did resemble some Continental recipes at the time, he notes. With soda, it would have roughly fit into the long drink, highball, or spritz categories. Paired with Champagne or another sparkling wine, it would have been approaching a French 75, though not as strong, or something like the Himmel, the Opponent, and other cocktails listed in European mixology books of the era. Such recipes are frequently light and very sweet.
“Some of these use ice cream, some of these use sherbet. Some of these use fruit juices and liqueurs,” Wondrich says.
Lufthansa made a big deal out of the in-flight drink in its heyday, featuring the bottles heavily in print advertisements throughout the 1960s. At some point, the lineup expanded to three varieties: Party, Bitter, and Dry Martini (licensed from Martini & Rossi, according to advertisements). But eventually, tastes changed, and at some point in the 1970s, the Lufthansa Cocktail disappeared from service carts.
Nostalgia can be a powerful marketing tool, however, and in 2005, the airline announced the relaunch of a 50th-anniversary edition of the Lufthansa Cocktail, produced by the German spirits giant Berentzen, maker of Puschkin vodka, fruit liqueurs, and other drinks. The first relaunch of the Lufthansa Cocktail was said to be made according to the original recipe and similarly had 30 percent ABV. Much like the version from 1955, it was packaged in a retro-inspired bottle that resembled a cocktail shaker capped with a silver jigger.
Credit: Lufthansa
Unfortunately, that version “failed,” the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper reported in 2016, when the airline announced a second relaunch of the Lufthansa Cocktail. This time, claims about the original recipe were tossed out in favor of a reimagined product, one that had “nothing to do with the old Mampe liqueur.” According to a product description at the German drinks website Honest & Rare, that version was made with “raspberry spirit, elderflower, a bitter aperitif and a rosé vermouth,” which combined to make just 15.5 percent ABV.
“Imagine the sweetness and fruitiness of a peach, paired with marzipan aroma, combined with the freshness of an orange. If you mix it with Champagne, you have the bubbles.”
Produced at Spreewood Distillers, makers of the excellent Stork Club rye whiskey, the 2016 Lufthansa Cocktail was part of a six-drink lineup that also included a pre-mixed Negroni, Dry Martini, White Manhattan, Old Fashioned, and Pear Gimlet. By all accounts, the drinks were very good; the Negroni even won a gold medal at the 2016 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Unfortunately, that version failed, too. Spreewood Distillers declined to comment for this article, noting only that they returned their license to produce Lufthansa Cocktail in 2022.
A Culture of Nostalgia
Although they didn’t really get off the ground, so to speak, the first two relaunches of the Lufthansa Cocktail connected to the status of the original, where it seems to serve as a cultural touchstone. Today, collectors still chase down the original Lufthansa Cocktail posters, as well as the occasional vintage bottle, on eBay and other auction sites. Bloggers and home bartenders have repeatedly posted their own attempts to recreate the original, often hailing the luxury of air travel in the “Mad Men” era: “Drinks above the clouds simply had more style back in the ‘60s.”
But according to the corporate descendant of the original producer, Mampe, the Lufthansa Cocktail doesn’t actually date back to the ’50s and ’60s. (Mampe was declared insolvent in 1984, Berliner Zeitung reported, while the rights to its name were purchased by the new owners from Berentzen shortly before they relaunched the company in 2013.) Florian Löhlein, Mampe’s current managing director, says that what Lufthansa launched as its own cocktail in 1955 was actually a standard recipe that Mampe had produced since at least the 1930s.
“It’s hard to find a good recipe that works in the air, above 30,000 feet. And it has to work also in the lounges, when you are still on the ground.”
“We started the drink as the first premixed drink of the world,” he says. “If you check out old bottles, it was first called Mampe Cocktail.”
Today, Mampe makes its own version, called Flieger Cocktail, meaning “flyer.” Its 35 percent ABV compares to the 30 percent of the original, as does its similar apricot-orange flavor profile. There have been some changes to the recipe, Löhlein admits, primarily in the modern switch to all-natural ingredients. For him, Flieger is an “end of the world cocktail,” the type of drink you’d reach for if you knew it was your last night on earth.
“Imagine the sweetness and fruitiness of a peach, paired with marzipan aroma, combined with the freshness of an orange,” he says. “If you mix it with Champagne, you have the bubbles.” The celebrated chef Tim Raue pairs it with grapefruit lemonade, he says, which brings in additional acidity, making the drink rounder and more balanced in the finish. It can also serve as a counterbalance for Berlin’s traditional sour beer, Berliner weisse.
“Berliner weisse is often mixed with raspberry and other syrups,” he says. “Since Flieger Cocktail has a decent amount of sweetness, it also works.”
Backing up the local brew is just one connection between Berlin and Mampe: In its heyday, the brand sponsored Berlin’s sports teams, ran many of its favorite pubs, and even played a small role in “Just a Gigolo,” a movie set in 1920s Berlin in which David Bowie walks around inside a Mampe bottle. And while locals may remember the brand as a hometown hero, many of Flieger Cocktail’s biggest fans come from a different demographic group: current and former Lufthansa employees.
Credit: Ziegler Distillery
“Our customers are pilots and stewardesses,” he says. “They can tell you stories of Flieger, when they had parties, when they had moments to remember on board the airplanes. The product is part of European aviation history.”
The Future Awaits
As an entirely new release, it might take Avionic a while to achieve similar status. The first bottles of the full-strength Avionic hit Lufthansa’s beverage carts in early 2024, while the new, non-alcoholic version only arrived early this year. Both required plenty of trial-and-error testing, Hund says. Due to low humidity, high pressure, and elevated noise levels, our sense of taste works differently in planes, reducing the impact of both salt and sugar.
“It’s hard to find a good recipe that works in the air, above 30,000 feet,” Hund says. “And it has to work also in the lounges, when you are still on the ground.”
Another challenge? Simplicity. Airline stewards are not trained bartenders, after all, and Lufthansa needed a drink that could be served as simply as possible, most commonly just topped off with a sparkling beverage.
Avionic certainly seems well positioned for our current era. Modern mixology has rediscovered bitterness, Wondrich says, with both amaro and aperitif being “white hot” at the moment. In a video about Avionic, Riebel says he was trying to “replace” the cocktail from the ’50s and ’60s and transform it “into a drink which suits nowadays.” As a German spirit carried by a German airline, it feels a bit like a modern version of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines serving Bols gin and genever in collectible delftware bottles, though more closely suited to today’s tastes.
As to whether Avionic will have its own collectors and fans in 70 or 80 years, only time will tell.
The article Flights of Fancy: The Long, Strange Backstory of Lufthansa’s Latest In-Flight Cocktail appeared first on VinePair.