Cocktail of the Week: Bee’s Knees

Glendalough & SHARP

Picture this: you are lounging in the leafy shade of a tree on a warm summer’s afternoon, the world around you is in full bloom, and the air is perfumed with the scent of fresh heather. This is precisely the vibe of the area that surrounds the Wicklow mountains, a land of edible greens, flowers, fruits and herbs. As all good visualizations involve a beautifully mixed drink, you’re also sipping a cocktail… and there is really only one that could complete this picture: a Bee’s Knees.

Sweet, tart, and refreshing all in one mouthful, a classic Bee’s Knees is coloured by the use of gin, and today we’re using Glendalough Wild Botanical Irish Gin. Flavoured with botanicals foraged during each season from those aforementioned lush yet rugged Wicklow mountains, Glendalough masterfully captures the taste of “a year in every bottle,” presenting just as delightfully on the palate straight up or over ice as it does in a hand crafted cocktail.

Coming up on the centenary of its invention, the Bee’s Knees is considered a “classic”, although its origins (as ever!) are somewhat contested. Our favourite version of the story involves famed Titanic survivor, the Unsinkable Molly Brown! The tale goes that Molly, a socialite, philanthropist and heiress of a great mining fortune, spent a great deal of time drinking in Paris — and, truly, doesn’t that sound like the dream? À Paris, she suggested a heady mix of honey, gin and lemon to fill her ever-emptied cup, and thus a legend was born.

The turn of events was documented in a 1929 Standard Union article, attributing the “sweet combination” to Mrs. JJ Brown of Denver and Paris. In the same year, however, Hotel Ritz Paris bartender Frank Meier was credited for the same such elixir in an issue of Cocktails de Paris. One supposes it could be possible that the unabashed Mrs. Brown cajoled the mixologist into rustling up the sip on her behalf.

Another story suggests that, owing to its flapper-sounding name, the Bee’s Knees was invented in prohibition America. Allegedly, the honey and lemon blend served as a dab hand at masking the unfavourable taste of bootlegged and bathtub gins, with some imbibers even going as far as to add a dash of lavender to the concoction to make it all the more palatable. Luckily, in this era of mindfully-crafted spirits such as Glendalough Wild Botanical Irish Gin, we’re blending for increased pleasure!

A few parting facts to pair with your final sips (don’t worry, we’re always supportive of another round): Glendalough employs a full-time forager — the only full-time forager in all of Ireland — to gather their blend of botanicals from the land. Geraldine Kavanagh spends her days traversing the Wicklow mountains and valleys looking for the fresh ingredients that masterfully flavour the award-winning Glendalough gin. Her efforts are reflected in glasswork of the embossed bottle (made of sustainable glass, of course), which presents bewitching scenes of botanicals “growing” from base to neck from a hand woven basket, like the one Kavanagh uses to collect her bounty. Aside from perhaps being an unsinkable and indulgent heiress, doesn’t “full time forager for delicious Irish gin botanicals”  sound like the absolute best job in the world?

Cheers, one and all — may your summers be long and sunny, and may your drinks be cold and ever-replenished!

The post Cocktail of the Week: Bee’s Knees appeared first on Sharp Magazine.