Back in the gin-oriented 1930s, long before the ascendancy of vodka, the Bee's Knees was a sort of  novelty cocktail, and it got bartenders thinking about using honey as a cocktail sweetener for the first time since the colonial era. Honey syrup imparts a warmth and flavor that sugar syrup simply can't provide, plus floral notes that do a great job offsetting acid ingredients such as citrus and bitter ingredients such as aromatics and spirits. You wouldn't want to use honey as a sweetener for most clean, simple drinks with distinctive flavor profiles, like the Daiquiri or the Margarita, because the sweet floral notes would muck up the purity of the drinks. But the Bee's Knees is, in fact, based on honey, so it's not mucking up - it's defining the drink. [1]


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Foto: Urbanfever.ro

Bee's Knees:

Gin 2 oz
Honey syrup 1 oz
Fresh squeezed lemon juice 1/2 oz

  • Coupe
  • Shake Strain
  • Lemon peel
Nothing can go wrong when you add honey, but when it comes to this cocktail honey isn't patching the drink. Think of it as an extension to gin. The flowers that the distiller did not cover in his recipe, have been cleverly processed by bees and somehow found their way into this drink, working with gin in a perfect synergy.
In my opinion this is just the right ration for the ingredients because honey has to be showcased as a star ingredient. Less of it would not be enough to be perceived in the drink and more would be far too sweet. Like this you have beautiful floral notes up front and still enjoy the herbaceous crispiness of the gin, with a bit of vibrant tingle from the lemon juice.  



Now let us hear from Jamie Gordon of Liquor.com how to make this modern classic cocktail.