This Bees Knees mocktail is made with non alcoholic gin, and tastes a lot like the classic cocktail. Read on for how to make this delicious lemon mocktail.
Bees Knees Mocktail
Ingredients
- 2 oz Monday Zero Alcohol Gin
- .75 oz lemon juice
- .75 oz honey syrup (1:1 honey + water)
- rosemary sprig (for garnish)
Equipment
- Cocktail Shaker
- Mini Angled Measuring Cup (Jigger)
Instructions
- Pop a coupe glass in the freezer, then gather your ingredients.
- Add all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake.
- Strain into your chilled coupe glass.
- Garnish with a rosemary sprig.
Notes
- Honey syrup is equal parts honey and water, but you can play with the styles of honey for flavor variation. Clover honey was used for the honey syrup in this recipe.
- Don’t forget to wash your produce!
- You can play with different garnishes depending on the aromatics you want to pair with the mocktail.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Read full disclaimer.History of Bee’s Knees
The Bee’s Knees cocktail is considered a product of Prohibition in the US (1920s). The name comes from a phrase “the bee’s knees” meaning “the best” that was commonly used during that time.
Gin in those days was made with the bathtub method, which is soaking botanicals in alcohol in a tub or large container. Because the gin was pretty strong in flavor, the lemon and honey were supposedly added to dampen the harshness of it.
Non Alcoholic Gin
Monday Zero Alcohol Gin is the best non-alcoholic gin for classic gin cocktails like the Bee’s Knees. It’s made in California by blending natural botanical extracts. Monday is quite bold in flavor, most prominently citrus and juniper, followed by spice and a bitter finish. While it is not made like it’s alcoholic counterpart, it packs a juniper punch and fills in nicely as a gin substitute.
Read the full review and tasting notes for Monday Zero Alcohol Gin, where several recipes were tested, including brand recommended mocktails.
Could Non Alcoholic Gin Offer Health Benefits?
Monday’s non-alcoholic gin has zero calories, zero carbs, and zero sugar, making it an excellent option for a sugar free mocktails and low calorie non alcoholic drinks. In addition to that, it’s full of botanical extracts, which might offer some health benefits. Here are some of the botanicals used in Monday gin and what health benefits they could possibly offer:
- Monkfruit extract: Monkfruit is commonly used as a healthy alternative to sugar as a sweetener because it has no calories, no carbs, and no sugar, so it should not affect blood glucose levels. It may also contain some powerful antioxidants.
- Juniper extract: If you do a little research on the benefits of juniper, it may seem like a superfood. It supposedly carries powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as being helpful in digestion. This study suggests it has anti-fungal capabilities. Pregnant women are advised to avoid juniper, as it has been attributed to potential miscarriages.
- Coriander seed extract: Coriander seeds come from the cilantro plant. It has immunity boosting properties due to its antioxidant content; it may also benefit heart health as well as reduce anxiety.
- Cucumber extract: Cucumber is great for skin health. It’s often found in skincare products, and we’ve all seen the old cucumber slices under the eyes trick. There’s a reason for that: cucumber is mostly water, but is also packed with Vitamin C, antioxidant and fatty acids. It’s a common choice for anti-inflammatory and anti-aging products.
Health Benefits of Lemon
Lemons are a great source of vitamin C – the juice from one lemon can provide around half your daily allowance. Vitamin C is an essential micronutrient, beneficial in many ways from the development to the repair of tissue and collagen. It’s a powerful antioxidant used in anti-aging products and immune boosting products.
Health Benefits of Honey
Like the above ingredients, honey also carries some antioxidant properties. In one study, daily consumption of honey helped lower total cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides. While it’s still high in sugar content, it is considered a slightly better sweetener than refined sugar, since it has some added nutrients and benefits previously mentioned.
As you can see, each one of these extracts and natural ingredients packs some potential health benefits, with antioxidants being a common thread. While the exact quantities are probably miniscule in each serving for a mocktail, it’s nice to know there might also be some health benefits to consuming a non-alcoholic beverage, aside from avoiding alcohol.
The following steps are a detailed explanation of how to craft a Bee’s Knees mocktail, from gathering the tools all the way to mixing.
Prepare Your Bees Knees Mocktail Ingredients
Mise en place. Gathering all of your ingredients prior to cooking, or in this case, mixing, will ensure the process moves quickly and will make cleanup a lot more efficient.
Not to mention, it is a lot easier to prep the right amounts if you’re making more than one mocktail. So, it may seem like a fancy chef term for making drinks, but trust me, it’s worth adding this habit in your kitchen routine, whether you are making drinks or food.
When preparing your ingredients, always wash and dry your produce. This is an easy step to overlook, but incredibly important. I find it easier to do this when I get home from the grocery store. That allows me to skip the washing step when I need to use it. A salad spinner is perfect for this.
If you are making more than one mocktail, you will want to have a couple vessels handy. Go ahead and measure out your lemon juice and non-alcoholic gin and set them aside in small cups. If you’re only making one or two, you can measure and pour them directly into the cocktail shaker.
How to Pick Out Lemon at the Grocery Store
Quality produce is important whether you are making mocktails or cocktails. Since you are working with fresh juice, you will want it to taste fresh and look nice. For lemons, you will want to look for a bright yellow rind that is slightly firm when you squeeze it.
If it’s too dark yellow, it might be so ripe it gets squashed when you try to slice it, affecting the way your garnish turns out. You will want it to be as free of blemishes as possible, because your produce is often a garnish as well as juice, so keep that in mind when selecting your items.
Tools Needed for Non Alcoholic Bee’s Knees Cocktail
In order to prepare your ingredients neatly, you will want to have your tools and storage vessels handy. Here are the tools you will need to gather for this recipe:
- pour-spout measuring cup – I like to keep at least two of these around; they are handy for liquids and much easier to use than standard handle measuring cups, as they stand up on their own.
- Cocktail shaker
- Citrus squeezer
- Coupe glass
- Small cups or jars (if making more than one mocktail)
- Spoon
- Strainer (this can be a separate item or attached to your cocktail shaker)
- Mixing glass or small saucepan for making honey syrup
How to Make Honey Syrup
It’s nice to keep some honey syrup and simple syrup in your fridge for future mocktail making needs. You never know when you might need a festive beverage. Honey syrup is equal parts honey and water. In the Bee’s Knees Mocktail, I prefer to use clover honey, as it has a fairly neutral flavor profile.
Here’s one easy way to make honey syrup:
- Heat up ½ cup (or desired volume) of water in a glass measuring cup in the microwave. It does not have to be boiling. Just warm it up, maybe 30 seconds on high. Alternatively, use a kettle.
- Make note of the water line, then add honey to the water until the water level rises to double where it was.
- Stir until honey completely dissolves.
- Let it cool on the counter before placing it in the refrigerator. You will want it to get cold before adding to your mocktail.
- Keep in a clean, sealed glass jar or easy pour container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks to use in another mocktail recipe.
How to Mix a Bee’s Knees Mocktail
After you have all your tools and ingredients ready, you can begin to make the bees knees mocktail. First, cut your lemon in half. Prepare your garnish: clip a small sprig of rosemary and set it aside.
Add honey, lemon, and non-alcoholic gin to the cocktail shaker, then add a handful of ice. Give it a hearty shake for about 10 seconds, or until the shaker becomes frosty. (Note: Generally, when a cocktail is shaken, you should add ice last to the shaker, so the ice doesn’t melt and dilute the drink.)
Strain into a chilled coupe glass using a hawthorne strainer and drop your rosemary garnish right on top. Cheers!
More Mocktail Recipes with Monday Zero Alcohol Gin
After testing Monday Gin in several drinks, a couple of my other favorites are:
- Rosie’s Gin – this is a Monday brand recommended mocktail made with lime juice and rosemary syrup, I taste tested it and it’s delicious!
- Non Alcoholic Gin and Tonic – try using Monday Gin in a classic G&T recipe and see if you can tell the difference.
I love to mix classic cocktails, and the Bee’s Knees is one of my favorites. It’s great that now we can still enjoy crafting cocktails but skip the alcohol by using a quality non-alcoholic gin. Full recipe summary can be found below.
