Many cocktail origins are lost to history, but perhaps only the origin of the Bee’s Knees is lost because everyone was too blitzed to remember it. This was the 1920s, possibly the booziest decade of the 20th century. With Prohibition in full swing, American drinkers went to increasingly elaborate, illegal, and dangerous lengths to get a taste. Remember, before the speakeasy aesthetic came to dominate modern cocktail culture—finally giving hipsters a legitimate reason to wear sleeve garters—it served a practical purpose. Though then, as now, monocles are utterly pointless.
The Bee’s Knees is a classic Prohibition cocktail. Even the name evokes the era. You can hear a flapper ordering it up with a Continental accent: “I’ll take a Bee’s Knees, Mack. And step on it before the bulls show up.”
The phrase “bee’s knees,” which initially was used to indicate something small or insignificant, predates the cocktail by more than a century. Usage later evolved, as it does, and the idiom was applied to people or things that were considered the best or “height of excellence.”
There were a number of similar ironic or nonsensical phrases floating around at the time. “The cat’s whiskers/pajamas,” “the eel’s ankle,” the elephant’s instep,” “the snake’s hip,” and “the capybara’s spats” were all, apparently, things people said—presumably after too much hooch. (Lately, I’ve been trying to revive “the capybara’s spats” to no avail. Who’s with me?)
A gin-based cocktail, honey and lemon were added to mask the odor and often-unpleasant taste of the bathtub gins being turned out at speakeasies, or obtained via other clandestine backchannels. Today, appreciators of fine bathtub gins still must go to great lengths to enjoy them, having to seek out obscure venues and endure harsh conditions, often with undesirable types (see video).