Gift Guide

Bees Knees
A popular Prohibition-era gin cocktail made with three simple ingredients.
Time to make: 7 minutesServes: 1

The Bee’s Knees is a Prohibition-era cocktail, invented as a way to mask the taste of bathtub gin with honey and lemon. Today, it’s an excellent example of how high-quality ingredients can really make a cocktail shine. Using local or specialty varieties of honey in the syrup can add more to the depth and richness of the drink.
Ingredients
- 1.5 oz. Aviation American Gin
- 0.75 oz. Lemon Juice
- 0.75 oz. Honey Syrup
- Lemon Twist Garnish
Directions
- Using a sharp knife and a cutting board, remove a long slice of lemon skin, leaving as little pith on the peel as possible. Gently curl into a twist and set aside
- Combine gin, lemon juice and honey syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice.
- Shake until combined and strain into a coupe glass.
- Twist the lemon peel over the drink to express the oils, then add as garnish.
In this recipe
Honey Syrup
Ingredients
- 8 oz. Honey
- 4 oz. Hot Water
Directions
- Pour honey and hot water into a mixing glass.
- Stir continuously for 60 seconds until the honey is dissolved.
- Pour into a container for storage, and label, date and refrigerate for later use. Good for 3 months. Yields 12 oz. of simple syrup.