It’s a fair bet that any drink with the name “bee” in the title is bound to incorporate a drizzle of honey.
In the case of this pre-prohibition cocktail, the name has a flirtatious meaning as well: A “bee’s kiss” was the term for the fluttering of the eyelashes against the cheeks, lips, or nose of one’s beloved.
Ingredients
- 2 oz. gold rum (or two thirds gold and one third dark rum)
- 1 oz. cream
- 2 tsp. honey
Place ingredients in a cocktail shaker with cracked ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. If desired, dust with a sprinkle of ginger or nutmeg.
For your further drinking pleasure ...
Replace the cream with the juice of 1 lime, omit the sprinkle of spice, and you have a delightful cocktail called Air Mail—which must have seemed quite the thing back in the 1920s, when instrumentation was lacking and pilots flew by instructions that said “Follow the tracks of the Long Island Railroad past the Belmont Park race track, keeping Jamaica on the left. Cross over New York and over the lower end of Central Park.”
Recipe reprinted from Cocktail Hour by Susan Waggoner published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang.