Bee's Knees

The Bee's Knees is a Prohibition-era cocktail that unsurprisingly features Honey as a sweetener. Other than Honey, the Bee's Knees also contains Gin, Lemon Juice, and Orange Juice., making it a relatively simple cocktail! You may see some resemblance to a standard Gin Sour (without the Egg White of course), and you wouldn't be wrong; it's really a riff on the standard sour formula.

Of course the the Honey used (instead of normal Simple Syrup) gives the Bee's Knees a different kind of sweetness that is preferred by a lot of people who enjoy the Bee's Knees for this very reason. You really can't go wrong with this classic cocktail. Try one today.

Total Time 5

Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients

60 mL Gin
30 mL Lemon Juice
30 mL Orange Juice
2 tsp Honey Syrup 3 parts Honey, 1 part water
Garnish with a twist of Orange or Lemon

Instructions

Put the Gin, both juices, and Honey Syrup in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake everything until it's cold and mixed.
Strain into a Coupe or Martini glass.
Garnish and serve.

Notes

Although this cocktail recipe is a Prohibition-era cocktail, it doesn't come to us from the the United States during the Prohibition. Instead it comes from the Hotel Ritz in Paris, created by Austrian bar tender Frank Meier.

The name of the cocktail is relatively clever, given the addition of Honey. Sure, nobody uses the expression "Bee's Knees" anymore to mean "best" or "great," but we still all know it, mostly. And this cocktail really is the Bee's Knees!

As with all cocktails, the quality of your drink will only be as good as the quality of the ingredients you use, so make sure you're using a decent Gin and fresh juices here!

Our Review of the Bee’s Knees

The Bee’s Knees is a classic cocktail, to be sure, and it’s stood the test of time, but I’m always worried about how well it actually works. This is obviously just my opinion (as it’s a review), but I’m never terribly attracted to cocktails that mix Gin with citrus juice. I like Gin combined with other spirits or modifiers, but find that it often doesn’t work as well with juice. Personally, the pine-centric flavours found in many Gins just don’t work with citrus.

Of course this is coming from a perspective of making a Bee’s Knees with a more traditional Gin that uses Juniper, which is what would have been used when the cocktail was created.

If you’re like me and don’t like the taste of Juniper with citrus, I do think the Bee’s Knees holds up a lot better with a more modern style of Gin. These days, it’s possible to get very citrus forward Gins, which obviously go a lot better with citrus fruits! Pair this with the Honey Syrup specified in the recipe and you actually have quite a lovely little cocktail.

So to me, the Bee’s Knees comes down to the Gin selected. You may try this cocktail recipe with one type of Gin and not like it, but love it with a different type of Gin. I don’t think this is unique to the Bee’s Knees. Personally, I really enjoy Gins of all different styles. It’s wonderful to explore Gin and get different flavours out of it. However, certain kinds of Gin do better in different places. This is necessarily the fault of the cocktail!

Overall, I’m relatively not committal about the Bee’s Knees. It’s a good cocktail, but likely won’t be my favourite. My suggestion is to try it with different kinds of Gins to see how it feels for you.

6.5/10