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Friday Cocktail Hour: The Bee's Knees!

Published: Aug 9, 2020 · Modified: Jan 19, 2021 by Michael Ruhlman · 4 Comments

Video by Katherine Guanche

Due to technical difficulties (sometimes referred to as vacation), I failed to post the Friday Cocktail on Friday! Better late than never I hope.

The Bee's Knees is a prohibition era cocktail, by some accounts created as a way to mask the flavor of bathtub gin (which has always sounded kind of gross to me—perfect place to keep your gin and take care of that ring around the tub!)

But the cocktail itself is splendid, a classic sour, dormant since its heyday until contemporary mixologists picked it back up. I keep it to a golden sour ratio of 2 parts hooch, 1 part sour, 1 part sweet. Here the sour is lemon juice and the sweet is honey syrup (equal parts honey and water, heated to blend then cooled). As always, I recommend starting at a basic ratio, tasting and adjusting as necessary before chilling and pouring.

When Sam Hood Adrain, my sound technician and video director, heard there was a new distillery in our town of Providence, RI, where we've been sheltering since March 13th, the first distillery in the city since prohibition, he contacted The Industrious Spirits Company to learn more. The distillery uses only regional, non-GMO, organic grains to make vodka and gin (with the more time consuming whiskeys to come). They were scheduled to open to the public in April, alas. But you can still sample their spirits, available at the distillery or at various shops in Rhode Island. They happily provided a bottle to sample (thank you!).

It's intensely herbaceous so I wouldn't use this for a martini, but it works great in more complex cocktails such as a sour. They suggested a Bee's Knees, and they were right! Welcome to Providence, ISco!

My reading today is from the eminent poet and teacher (at Washington U in St. Louis), whom I met at Bread Loaf. I was intrigued to find that, in looking for one of his poems that included bees, that an article on Medium actually addresses the poet's use of horses and bees. In this poem, Aubade: Some Peaches, After Storm (lovely title, that), notice how bees though not actually present, are evoked; I love how bees are used to signal rot. (An aubade is a poem appropriate to dawn or early morning, but I'm using it for the evening cocktail any way. I love the evocative, specific, sensual first stanza countering the mysterious abstract second stanza. Carl's latest book is, Pale Colors In a Tall Field: Poems. Highly recommend. Support our poets!

Happy Friday everyone (even though I'm typing this on Sunday!)!

The Bee's Knees

A gin sour, sweetened with honey
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes mins
Course Cocktail
Cuisine American
Servings 1

Ingredients
  

  • 2 ounces gin
  • 1 ounce lemon juice
  • 1 ounce honey syrup (1 part honey dissolved in 1 part water)
  • 1 lemon twist

Instructions
 

  • Combine the fluids. Taste and adjust to your liking. Add ice and chill. Strain into a chilled coup or over ice and garnish with a twist.
Keyword Gin, honey, Lemon, sour
« FCH: The Rosemary Gimlet
Friday Cocktail Hour: The Mai Tai »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Stephanie Senerchia

    August 09, 2020 at 9:39 pm

    OOh, are you on the south coast? Looks yummy and gorgeous.

    Reply
  2. Michael Ruhlman

    August 10, 2020 at 4:16 pm

    In new england actually, and it's lovely. so happy to be out of our urban environment.

    Reply
    • Stephanie Senerchia

      August 11, 2020 at 9:27 pm

      It looks gorgeous. We will be in southern RI later this month. I have mixed feelings about my home state but damn, I miss the beaches and food.

      Reply
      • Michael Ruhlman

        August 13, 2020 at 2:14 pm

        the beaches and the food are pretty great.

        Reply

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Hi, I'm Michael Ruhlman, an award-winning author and cook who writes about chefs, food and cooking, among other things.

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Hi, I'm Michael Ruhlman, an award-winning author and cook who writes about chefs, food and cooking, among other things.

More about me →

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

See my books!

Ratio App for iPhone

After I wrote my book Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, a colleague and I built a ratio calculator for iPhones that allows you to cook without recipes. For doughs, batters, custards, sauces, stocks and more, simply plug in the amount of one ingredient and the amounts of the other ingredients are instantly calculated. It's also a handy reference for dozens of our most common preparations. ($4.99 in the app store.)

Collaborate

I’ve collaborated on a dozen books, including cookbooks and a memoir. If you'd like to collaborate on a project, please contact my agent, Gail Hochman, [email protected], at Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.

For speaking engagements contact, Kip Ludwig, [email protected].

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