The best cocktail recipes using honey

The best cocktail recipes using honey

With temperatures set to turn up a notch this week, and with bars still closed, our thoughts turn to creating deliciously summery drinks at home. The sweet, sweet vibes of our real honey work absolute wonders in a wide variety of cocktails. Far healthier than your standard sugar syrup, it can be used to both create depth in citrus cocktails and balance the heat of spicy drinks. Honey cocktails come in many shapes and sizes – the sweet nectar working well with gin, bourbon, tequila and rum.

In this piece we’ll run through some super simple and delicious honey cocktail recipes for you to shake or stir up at home, for those long summer evenings in the garden, on the beach or in the park.

But first of all, you’ll need to make a natural sugar syrup using honey. It’s a little too thick and sweet to use neat, so simply combine two parts of your chosen honey with one part water. And hey presto, you’re ready to make honey cocktails!

Gorgeous Gin

A classic Prohibition-era gin sour to get your taste buds going, this ‘Bees Knees’ is a simple yet stylish honey gin cocktail. First, make your natural sugar syrup by combining two parts honey (we used a nice floral Heather honey for this one) with one part water. In a shaker, combine 30ml lemon juice, 20ml natural sugar syrup and 55ml of good quality gin. Fill with ice and shake well, before straining into a coupe glass.

Beautiful Bourbon

Bourbon and honey is a match made in cocktail heaven – just look at how Jack Daniels have added a honey version of their whisky to the range lately. Another simple one for you, the ‘Gold Rush’ is a modern classic that you’ll fall in love with. Add 55ml bourbon, 20ml lemon juice and 20ml natural sugar syrup to a cocktail shaker. We found that the spice of our ginger honey works well with this one! Shake well and strain into the heftiest tumbler you can find, containing a large ice cube. Cheers!

Tantalising Tequila (or Raucous Rum)

We’ve got a spicy one for you here, the ‘Torchlight’, which works equally well with either white rum or tequila. Stir up your natural sugar syrup, using our British golden honey, then combine 20ml of it with six dashes of Cholula hot sauce, a pinch of cayenne pepper, 20ml lime juice and 55ml of your chosen spirit in a shaker. Shake and then strain into a large tumbler, containing an equally large ice cube. Garnish with a wedge of lime and dust with cayenne pepper. It’ll blow your mind, literally!

 
 
 
 
…and for those avoiding alcohol

A deliciously refreshing honey limeaid to make an all-day, non-alcoholic drink. Take seven teaspoons of our British borage honey and stir together with 45ml freshly squeezed lime juice. Shake with ice and strain into an ice-filled Collins glass. Top with soda water and serve.