The Bee’s Knees is an undisputed traditional. A Prohibition-era gin bitter made with honey, it’s beloved, not simply due to its old-timey title, but in addition as a result of it harks again to the “golden age” of cocktails. However for Bee’s Knees followers who wish to department out, there’s a deep reduce that’s largely been left to historical past—till now. Enter the Bebbo.
The primary extant recipe we’ve got for the Bebbo comes from a little-known 1937 e-book out of New Orleans: Gerald Marco and Hyman Gale’s The How and When. The recipe takes the gin-lemon-honey mixture of the Bee’s Knees and provides orange juice—a easy change that rounds out the Prohibition traditional’s sharp edges. Actually, Ted Haigh purposefully excluded the Bee’s Knees in his e-book Classic Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, making a observe within the Bebbo entry in regards to the orange-laced model’s superiority. Many years later, Michael Madrusan, proprietor of The Everleigh in Melbourne, Australia, additionally grew to become keen on the drink.
Again when his bar opened in 2011, Madrusan was poring over cocktail books for analysis. One among them was the 1977 traditional Jones’ Full Barguide, a large compendium that accommodates 1000’s of recipes, together with the Bebbo. (By the way, the e-book has acted as a significant inspiration, in breadth and variety of recipes, for the forthcoming Madrusan’s Cocktail Compendium.)
Each the Nineteen Thirties and ’70s recipes name for about an oz. and a half of gin, a good quantity of lemon and small quantities of orange juice, however the ensuing drink could be too bitter. For his model, Madrusan elevated the gin and orange quotients barely, whereas decreasing the quantity of lemon, yielding a drink that he says has been extra balanced, and well-liked with company.
The unique Nineteen Thirties recipe requires dry gin, a selection additionally implied within the Jones information, which was written at a time when “gin” had unequivocally come to imply the London dry type. Madrusan reaches for a bottling from Australian distiller 4 Pillars. The model’s Uncommon Dry gin combines spices like cardamom, star anise and cinnamon with “tons of citrus,” he says, parts that make the expression really feel tailored for the Bebbo. For Madrusan’s recipe, two ounces of the gin marries harmoniously with half an oz. every of lemon and orange juices.
To offer the bitter its pleasing heft, The Everleigh’s home honey syrup is additional wealthy, with a honey-to-water ratio of three to at least one. However what’s most essential, Madrusan says, is the honey the bar makes use of: It comes from Victoria and has the distinctive profile of toffee and stewed fruit.
The Everleigh’s signature Bebbo, with its spiced gin and flavorful honey syrup, is bolstered by an fragrant garnish of Angostura bitters utilized in a stripe throughout the drink’s floor. The right line could be exhausting to realize, says Madrusan, however “in the event you get a transparent stripe, properly completed, you.”
On a uncommon full shift behind the bar not too long ago, Madrusan says he was pleasantly shocked that company have been ordering the Bebbo all evening lengthy. It’s a type of “certain issues,” he says, that has mass attraction. It’s virtually inconceivable to not like. “Nonetheless you take a look at this drink,” he says, “it’s only a banger.”
