H&H Happy Hour: Bee’s Knees

As we start to round the corner of summer, seeing fall on the horizon, we continue to look for relief from this oppressive Virginia heat. For this week’s H&H Happy Hour cocktail we turn to a drink actually created during prohibition. Gin being banned at the time, people would make it in their bathtubs giving it a strong juniper smell and taste. The honey lemon and thyme were said to mask this “bathtub gin.”

Let’s start by setting the record straight: this particular thyme cocktail variation was hoisted from the Woodward restaurant in the Ames Boston hotel. If you remember the first in our H&H Happy Hour series, we infused vodka – this time we infuse honey with thyme.

Honey Thyme Simple Syrup

• 1 cup honey  (source: Bearer Farms)
• 1 cup water
• Sprig of thyme  (source: E.A.T. garden)

• ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
• ¾ oz honey-thyme simple syrup
• 1½ oz gin
• ice to fill shaker & glass
• lemon peel twist and thyme sprig for garnish

• Place all ingredients into a mixing glass.
• Add ice, cap with shaker and shake vigorously!
• Strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice.
• Garnish with a twist of lemon and a sprig of thyme.

 

There you have it – a wonderful drink as we round the corner of summer.  Let me just say this drink really is the bee’s knees (you’ve read enough posts now to know that line was coming).