Roaring Twenties Meet Celestial Weddings
When planning a 1920's-themed party, it's easy to get wrapped up in the speakeasy vibe of it all, with secret passwords and hidden doorways lending an air of illicit mystery. And we're here for the cloak and dagger. But once you dig a little deeper, you'll find that there's more to a good 1920's cocktail party than outsmarting the law. 20's drinks have a special flair, born from the unique enthusiasm of a remarkable moment in history.
Drinks like the Bees’ Knees, the Hanky Panky, and the Bizzy Izzy Highball are central to the beverage history of the 1920's. They owe their catchy names to the jazz aesthetic that was quickly reshaping the world at that time. Likewise, their bright, quenching flavors reflect shifts in the nature of night-life, as cocktails moved from men-only social clubs into dance halls and cafés where both women and men could partake.
Bees’ Knees
In the 1920's, the term "the bee's knees” came to be slang for something really good – similar to "the bomb” in the 1990's. The Bee's Knees cocktail, which debuted in 1925 in Paris, lives up to that promise, with just three ingredients– gin, lemon, and honey– weaving layer after layer of taste and aroma.
The keys to making The Bee's Knees well are to use good fresh lemon and to choose a gin and honey-variety that pair well together. You'll want a light-bodied honey (clover honey works well) so that the delicate aromas of the gin have room to take center stage. A more modern gin, with enhanced floral elements, works really well here– something like our local favorite, Falcon Spirits’ Botanica, or the London/Iceland mashup of Martin Miller's Gin.
If you're willing to spend a little more time and money sourcing special honey, a whole new set of options becomes possible, where the honey itself takes center stage. From the Manuka-flower honeys of New Zealand to the Linden-flower honeys of Germany and the Osmanthus-flower honeys of China, beekeepers have long known that feeding bees the pollen of certain flowers can create honeys with incredible flavor. Taking one of these unique honeys, like the Linden-flower honey from Breitsamer Honig, and pairing it in a Bees Knees with a sharp dry gin like Anchor's Junipero or St. George Dry Rye Gin, gives you a Bees Knees where the spice of the gin cuts the sweetness of the honey just enough for the flower aromatics to shine.
The Bees’ Knees
2 oz Falcon Spirits Botanica Gin
¾ oz fresh lemon juice
¾ oz honey syrup (equal parts honey : water by volume)
Shake vigorously and strain into a coupe glass
*For celestial vibes garnish with crescent moon dehydrated lemon
Hanky Panky
According to the visionary 1920's bartender Ada Coleman, at the start of the 1920's in the bar she then ran in London, an often-overworked actor named Charles Hawtrey would walk up to her bar and say "I am tired. Give me something with a bit of punch in it.’” To supply the "punch" that her friend/regular requested, Ada Coleman turned to the cutting bitterness of Fernet Branca– but just a tiny splash, balanced with fragrant gin, and softened by plenty of soothing Italian vermouth. The actor's response, says Coleman, was first to sip it; then to drain the glass; and then to exclaim "By Jove! This is the real hanky-panky!"
Cocktail history writer Emily Bell says that Hawtrey meant "something closer to magic or witchcraft" than we might think today. The magic of Coleman's recipe is clear: the Hanky Panky is both soft and sharp; both simple and deep. It's the perfect invigorating sip for your Roaring Twenties party.
Hanky Panky
1.5 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
1.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino
20 drops Fernet Branca
Stir and strain into a stemmed glass.
Bizzy Izzy High Ball
We had to bend our timeline just a touch to include this recipe as a 1920's drink; it was first published by Tom Bullock in 1917. Cocktail writer Drew Lazor has suggested that Tom Bullock, like Ada Coleman, most likely created the Bizzy Izzy as a nod to a vaudeville actor in the area where he ran a bar. and from its rhyming name to its bold, thirst-quenching character–perfect for gulping between songs on a dance floor– the Bizzy Izzy is undoubtedly part of the Jazz Era that shaped the 20's.
Bullock's Bizzy Izzy opts for two base spirits in equal parts: bourbon and sherry. This trick of "splitting" base spirits is super popular in the 2000's, and for good reason. Dry sherry, with its mix of tart, sweet, and earthy, is great at drawing out the refreshing side of a good bourbon. Paired with pineapple syrup, lemon, and cold seltzer, the sherry-bourbon duo makes a bright and exciting impression. This is the drink that your 20's party guests will keep talking about for years to come!
Bizzy Izzy Highball
¾ oz Evan Williams Bonded Bourbon
¾ oz Lustau “Fino Jarana” sherry
¾ oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz pineapple syrup
Shake vigorously and strain into a tall glass. Top with cold seltzer and fill glass with ice.
To make pineapple syrup: cut an entire washed pineapple into rough 1” cubes. Instead of peeling the fruit, allow the rhind to remain on the outer cubes.
In a large bowl, stir all cubes with enough sugar to coat all cubes generously. Add the peel from 2 lemons. Cover and leave in refrigerator 24 hours.
Strain all resulting liquid into a container, pressing cubes to extract the juice. This liquid is the syrup. Keep cold until ready to use. Lasts 1-2 weeks in the refrigerator.
New Money Honey
A MobMix original, New Money Honey is our tribute to the character Jay Gatsby of The Great Gatsby. Jay is a target of fascination and suspicion among the characters of the novel he inhabits, and cocktail should be the same: fascinating and suspiciously easy to drink.
To make the New Money Honey, we start by combining fresh lemon peels with honey. Into this mix, we crush fresh grapes, skins and all. We add the juice from the lemons, and let everything rest together. Over time, the honey draws unique and magical flavors out of the lemon zest and the grape skins. With these flavors extracted, we remove all solids and keep the liquid that's left, which is called oleo saccharum.
We combine this grape-honey-lemon oleosaccharum with cold sparkling wine, a splash of cold seltzer, and some of the dry sherry that we've got on hand from making Bizzy Izzy Highballs. The result might just be too refreshing.
Are we mixing champagne with grape soda? No comment. Why don't you try one and let us know whether you approve?
New Money Honey
2.5 oz chilled sparkling wine
1 oz oleo-saccharum from grape, lemon, and honey
¾ oz Lustau "Fino Jarana” sherry
2 oz cold seltzer
Combine all in a rocks glass. Top with ice and garnish with fresh grapes.
*For celestial vibes serve up in a champagne flute and add sparkling star edible glitter
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