Bee's Knees (cocktail)

Bee's Knees

IBA official cocktail
Type	Cocktail
Primary alcohol by volume	Gin
Served	Straight up; without ice
Standard garnish	Optionally garnish with lemon or orange zest
Standard drinkware	Cocktail glass
IBA specified ingredients	52.5 ml dry gin 22.5 ml lemon juice 22.5 ml orange juice 2 teaspoons honey syrup
Preparation	Stir honey syrup with lemon and orange juices until it dissolves, add gin and shake with ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass
Bee's Knees recipe at International Bartenders Association

A Bees Knees (or Bee's Knees) is a Prohibition Era cocktail made with gin, fresh lemon juice, and honey. It is served shaken and chilled, often with a lemon twist.

The name comes from prohibition-era slang meaning "the best".^[1]

History[]

The Bee's Knees was invented by , an Austrian-born, part Jewish bartender who was the first head bartender at the Ritz in Paris in 1921, when its Cafe Parisian opened its doors.^[2]

Variations[]

A Bee's Knees cocktail made with gin, 1:1 honey syrup, and lemon juice

• Barr Hill Gin is sometimes recommended for its honey infusion, though other gins may be used (including Barr Hill's Tom Cat gin).^[1]
• The honey may be diluted 1:1 with warm water to thin the consistency.^[3]
• The honey may be diluted 1:1 with simple syrup instead of water.^[1]
• A sprig of basil or thyme may be used for garnish instead of lemon peel.^[3]
• Some variations contain orange juice^[4]
• Add 2 dashes of absinthe and 2 dashes of orange bitters to make a variation called "Oldest Living Confederate Widow"^[5]
• Add 1 oz James Bay Distillers' Finocchietto and lemonade (or a lemon soda) to taste, for a "2/3 Holy" cocktail featuring anise and fennel (without the last 1/3 of absinthe's "holy trinity" of botanicals).^[6]

References[]

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