2 tsp Strained Honey (1/2 oz Honey Syrup 1:1)
1 tsp Lime Juice (1/2 oz)
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
Two Sundays ago, I was flipping through my 1940 edition of The How and When when I spotted a curious tequila drink called the Juschu. While a tequila Bee's Knees with Angostura Bitters is not all that stunning of a concept (then again, the Becherovka version, the Metamorphosis, begs to differ), it was amazing that this recipe appeared only 3 years after the 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book put forth some of the earliest tequila cocktail recipes including the recipe that was later renamed the Margarita. Moreover, the Juschu, unlike the Bee's Knees, sort of got lost in history for very few cocktail books ever republished the recipe.
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5 comments:
I tried this cocktail at Middle Branch in NYC recently, enjoyed it, and was excited to find your recipe when attempting to replicate the cocktail at home. Would you mind checking the proportions on this one though? If 2 tsp Strained Honey equals ½ ounce, then how can 1 tsp Lime Juice also equal ½ oz? Furthermore, ½ liquid ounce is actually the equivalent of 3 tsp…
Thanks!
I balanced it to my tastes. If you followed all old recipes to the letter, the classic Aviation would be a tart mess. Here, I didn't want something as sweet, so I fit it to a standard 2 : 1/2 : 1/2 that I would use for a Bee's Knees at the bar I currently work at.
Also, tequilas of today are a lot smoother than the stuff people were getting when that recipe was written. Back then, a bit more honey to smooth over the rough edges would be needed.
What is strained honey syrup?
Strained honey syrup is the way that book wrote the recipe. Back in the day, honey was rather crude with bug parts and other debris from the hive being common. The stuff we get today is already strained (if it is even honey at all).
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