Burnt Fuselage

An aviation-themed sour combining cognac with Grand Marnier and dry vermouth, named for the era of early flight.

The Burnt Fuselage takes its name from the vocabulary of early aviation — specifically the charred wreckage that became tragically familiar to the public through the barnstorming era and the early commercial aviation disasters of the 1920s and 1930s. Aviation-themed cocktail names proliferated in this period as flight captured public imagination worldwide: the Aviation cocktail (gin, maraschino, crème de violette, and lemon juice) was documented in Hugo Ensslin's 1916 Recipes for Mixed Drinks; the Airmail, the Test Pilot, and the Jet Pilot followed through subsequent decades. The brandy-and-mint combination in the Burnt Fuselage belongs to a longer tradition in American drinking: the Stinger, which pairs cognac with white crème de menthe, was one of the most fashionable digestifs in mid-20th century American fine dining, and its mint-brandy flavor logic dates back further to the Colonial era's mint julep and brandy julep traditions. White crème de menthe — a colorless mint liqueur produced commercially by several European producers including Bols and DeKuyper — contributes a clean, sharp peppermint character that contrasts with cognac's warm stone-fruit richness without overwhelming it. The specific Burnt Fuselage name suggests caramelization or charring — a flavor note that appears in aged cognac's interaction with toasted oak barrels — making the name more evocative of the spirit's production than of actual aviation catastrophe.