Category: cocktails

Cocktail of the Week: Bee’s Knees

Bee's knees cocktail

I follow a cocktail maker on Tumblr, named DrinkShouts, they often show cocktails that look amazing. I’ve often wanted to make them but they usually require liquors that I don’t have and aren’t willing to purchase. They recently promoted the Bee’s Knees, a cocktail that dates back to Prohibition times. It is believed that the inclusion of lemon and honey was in order to mask the taste of bathtub gin. That might be the case, but it’s a delicious cocktail even with good gin.

Bee's knees cocktail
The ingredients

Bee’s Knees

  • 2 oz. Gin
  • 3/4 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
  • .3/4 oz. Honey Syrup

Combine ingredients in a shaker full of ice. Shake. Strain into a chilled cocktail coupe, if you have one. I don’t so I used a margarita glass. No garnish, or a lemon twist.

Bee's knees cocktail

 

The Bee’s Knees has a nice smooth honey flavor with a hint of sour. Depending on the type of gin you use there’ll be a hint of juniper as it goes down. The honey syrup is delicious and I think I’m going to try using it in other cocktails that call for simple syrup. It has a distinctly honey taste to it, one I found quite appealing.

Cocktail of the Week: São Paulo Mule

São Paulo Mule

The São Paulo Mule cocktail is my first attempt at creating a cocktail. For Christmas I was gifted a 12 pack of Guarana Antarctica, the best soda on the planet, and I wanted to see if I could integrate it into a cocktail. My favorite cocktail is the Moscow Mule; it just seemed obvious that I should try and combine them. For a first attempt it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. I have some ideas on how to improve the cocktail that I’ll share below.

São Paulo Mule
The ingredients

São Paulo Mule

  • 3/4 oz. vodka
  • 1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
  • Guarana Antarctica

Shake vodka and lime juice in a shaker w/ ice. Strain over ice. Add Guarana Antarctica to top. Garnish with lime wedge.

São Paulo Mule

The problem with this cocktail was that the Guarana overpowers everything. It has a strong, distinct flavor and that overwhelms the lime. They only thing the lime juice adds is a discordant sour note. I could fix this by using a fruit juice that complements the soda but I worry that it might end up too sweet. I’m thinking that a better foundation for this drink would be a highball and maybe a more flavored liquor, say bourbon or a dark rum? I’ll let you know how it goes!

Cocktail of the Week: Cranberry Mimosa

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I’ve still got cranberry juice in the fridge and it’s still Autumn… So, I guess I better figure something out here, huh? I can’t use straight cranberry juice because that would pucker the face of anyone who drank it into some unimaginable nightmare. That is an easy enough fix with some simple syrup. But, what can I do with cranberry juice? Ah, I know, a mimosa!

The ingredients
The ingredients

Cranberry Mimosa

  • 1 part Prosecco
  • 1 part cranberry juice w/ simple syrup

Pour juice and syrup into flute glass, add Prosecco. Garnish with thyme and cranberries if desired (or you have them.)

Note: Only use simple syrup if you’re using 100% cranberry juice. If you bought regular cranberry juice, or as it is sometimes called cranberry cocktail, you don’t need to worry about sweetening it. I mixed the juice and simple syrup in with a 2:1 ratio.

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I had doubts about this cocktail. I couldn’t imagine how bad it would have been if I went with pure cranberry juice but with it sufficiently sweetened this turned out wonderful the dry Prosecco works well with the tartness of cranberries. This cocktail would be a perfect pair with fowl, so give it a try with your Thanksgiving dinner and let me know what you thought!

Cocktail of the Week: White Linen

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I know it’s moving into Autumn, and for a few days it even felt like that here in Northern California but now? Now, it seems were back at the tail end of summer. Blue skies, warm or even hot days… With an Indian Summer in full effect, I decided to make another summer cocktail, a White Linen. This is a deliciously refreshing cocktail that was born right here in “Norcal” at the Shady Lady bar in Sacramento (or Ella’s they share a bartender.)

The ingredients
The ingredients

White Linen

  • 1 1/2 oz gin
  • 1/2 oz St. Germain
  • 1/2 oz simple syrup
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • 5 or 6 thin English cucumber slices

Combine everything with ice in a shaker and shake well. Strain into glass with ice, top with soda water, and garnish with a cucumber slice.

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If you like cucumbers, and gin, you’re going to like this cocktail. If you happen to be in the midst of an unusually mild winter or preternaturally long summer you can’t go wrong with a White Linen. The hint of fresh cucumber, the sweetness of elder flower. A lovely cocktail.

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