Bee’s Knees

The Bee's Knees is a Prohibition-era gin sour built around honey — at its simplest just gin, honey syrup and fresh lemon juice, with the official International Bartenders Association build adding a measure of fresh orange juice — shaken hard and served straight up. Its name is 1920s American slang for "the best," and the drink fits the era it came from: honey and lemon were enlisted to round off and mask the harsh, hastily made bathtub gin of the day. The result is a clean, bright, faintly floral sour — pale gold, tart and lightly sweet, with the gin's botanicals carried by the soft, mellow note of honey. It is one of the most durable of the classic gin sours and is recognised today among the official cocktails of the International Bartenders Association.