Bumblebee

Bumblebee by Charles H. Baker, Jr.

I’m raising my glass to a friend in gratitude, thanks and admiration, with a classic cocktail to compliment his classic creation. The drink can be found in the adventurous pages of bon vivant Charles H. Baker’s South American Gentleman’s Companion, c. 1951. Baker led a storied life, traveling the world by land and sea, toting his cocktail making apparatus with him to reaches far across the globe and writing about his adventures in magazines like Esquire and his Gentleman’s Companions, or as he liked to call them, “World Famous Lively Liquid Masterpieces from Greater and Lesser Parts of Orient and Occident, and the South Seas.”

flight of the bumblebee

The cocktail plays off the classic daiquiri template of rum, lime and sugar syrup, but exchanges the sugar for honey, which lends a richness of flavor and fullness to the texture. Add in the egg white for a frothy foam and more texture and you’ve got an entirely different cocktail without changing very much. Which goes to show that bartenders were “inventing” new cocktails by riffing on old ones back in the day just like we do now. What’s old is new and vice versa. Cheers!

playing the B sides

Bumblebee by Charles H. Baker, Jr.

1 ½ oz aged Jamaican rum (Appleton Estate V/X)

½ oz funky Jamaican rum (Smith and Cross)

¾ oz lime

1 oz honey syrup (1:1)

½ oz egg white

Shake ingredients without ice to froth then with ice to chill. Strain into a coup and garnish with Angostura bitters.

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