source: http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2012/05/james-be…

Thanks for the citation. Updated source per zombijosue. Added brand of gin and corrected the amount of mint from 6 to 3 springs to conform to cited recipe.

I don’t know if this should be a curation request (too many years spent lurking without making an account). But per Toby Maloney the pinch of salt should more specifically be 15-20 grains of kosher salt. This can also be made with Hendricks but at 2.5 oz. 

citation: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/104181-the-violet-hour/page/9/

For early cocktails from The Violet Hour, I would suggest checking LTHforum or egullet too. 

Not as exciting as I expected. Lime overpowers, rose and mint are lost and I went heavy on both.

I cleaned up this drink, merging the DeGroff, Esquire, and Distinguished Spirits versions into one. This follows the Esquire version, though I've tagged the egg white as optional. Thanks,  Zachary

For reference, De Groff has 1.5/1/0.75, which is his usual ratio for sours.

Good, but it needed a little more gin and some orange bitters to really bring it together.

Used Empress 1908 gin & dry curacao for a color explosion!

I've been drinking G&Ts like this for years. I prefer 2 oz Gin, 3.5-4oz Tonic, .5 oz Campari and .25 oz lime juice.

Great minds think alike.

If you have a little time, try freezing the Campari (or Aperol) with the lime in a Frosun. Makes for a rather special G&T variant.

Cleaned this up a lot. It now conforms to the original recipe quoted in Beachbum Berry Remixed. Kaiser Penguin has a good comparison of the various Fogcutter recipes floating around the Internet, but basically says that the orange juice is the dangerous part of this drink and the goal is to get it into balance with everything else. Some of the many variations are noted in the Notes section.

Prefer the Colonial cocktail, which has the same ingredients, but is heavier on the grapefruit juice and lighter on the maraschino. 

I have had this a couple times and not very impressed with it. Strange enough I was looking through the Craft of the Cocktail and Dale DeGroff had a completely different version but stated it was served at the Algonquin Hotel....hmmm either way it sounded tastier then the original I've always known. 2oz light rum, 1/2oz blackberry brandy, 1/2oz Benedictine, 1/2 oz lime juice. Shaken, strained, cocktail, cherry garnish. Anyone else read anywhere to substantiate Mr DeGroffs claimed version?

Is this the best drink you're ever going to have? Definitely not. But I have to admit this is one I come back to over and over again. Maybe it's just that outside of tiki there's not all that much to do with pineapple juice before it spoils, but I think it's more than that. This drink reminds me of a style of cocktail that  doesn't seem to exist anymore. I get the same vibe with a number of different classics that combine vermouth and citrus. It just tastes so unique. Every cocktail bar has the same menu of riffs...Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Daiquiri, Negroni, etc. but no one is making stuff that tastes like this. Sure it's a little rough around the edges, but that's what makes it so good.

Updated to correct an error in a quantity ("1 1/2", not "1 1/12"), plus improve reference. This is a very delicious drink.

Looks very similar to a Rittenhouse Eye-Opener that Zorn used to serve by request at Thatch in Portland, consisting of equal parts Campari, rye (Rittenhouse, naturally), and orange juice.