Derivative · Gin
Bee's Knees
A Prohibition-era cocktail featuring gin, lemon juice and honey.
Ingredients
- 2 ozLondon dry gin
- ¾ ozlemon juice
- ½ ozhoney syrup
Method
- Add the gin, lemon juice and honey syrup into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled.
- Strain into a chilled cocktail glass
- Garnish with lemon twist
History
The name comes from the slang vernacular indicating something is perfect or excellent: "It's the bee's knees!" one might've said back in the day. The drink is credited to Frank Meier, an Austrian-born bartender who plied his trade in Paris during the 1920s. It’s a simple extension of the classic Gin Sour (gin, lemon, sugar) where honey replaces sugar as the sweetener. This may have been done given that the gin served at the time was fairly subpar and the honey masks the flavor with a rich floral sweetness. Nowadays, gin quality is far superior and varied thankfully. Using a traditional London dry will give more juniper emphasis, while modern floral gins will emphasize more of the citrus and floral notes of the honey in the cocktail.
Flavour
Details
- Glass
- Coupe
- Garnish
- None (or a small paper plane)
- Technique
- shaken
Family
Derived from
Gin Sour - simple syrup -> honeyDerivatives
Gold Rush - bourbon instead of ginCompared with Gin Sour
What changes: simple syrup -> honey.
Gin Sour
- 2 ozLondon dry gin
- 1 ozlemon juice
- ½ ozsimple syrup
- ½ ozegg white (optional)
- 3 dashesAngostura bitters (optional)
Bee's Knees
- 2 ozLondon dry gin
- ¾ ozlemon juice
- ½ ozhoney syrup
Green = new ingredient · Gold = different amount · Red = not used in Bee's Knees