060 – Bee’s Knees

A post Sydney Covid ‘lock-down’ exploration of the intriguing ‘Bee’s Knees’ cocktail.

The creator, Frank Meier (The Bartender Spy) is even more interesting than his cocktail. Like everything connected to Frank Meier (1884–1887) there are lots of unanswered questions.

Make your own ‘mix-at-home’ #Locktail, the Frank Meier’s original, early 20th Century ‘Bee’s Knees’.

METHOD – Add 60ml London Dry Gin (I have opted for Tanqueray for this mix), 20ml each of fresh lemon juice and fresh orange juice, and 10ml (two bar-spoons) of either honey or honey syrup into a cocktail shaker with a handful of ice. Shake until very cold and the honey has mixed (15-30 seconds) and then double strain into a chilled coupe, cocktail or martini glass. Option to garnish with lemon and/or orange peel.

HISTORICAL NOTES – The ‘Bee’s Knees’ cocktail is claimed by Frank Meier (‘The Bartender Spy’ 1884–1947), marked in his book as his creation. If creation does lie elsewhere, then as a minimum, the first in-print recipe is still within Frank Meier’s 1936 book, ‘The Artistry of Mixing Drinks’ (image below), of which only 300 were printed and distributed primarily to personal contacts of Meier. His recipe calls for the juice of one-quarter lemon, a teaspoon of honey and one-half glass (30ml) of Gin, shaken well, a very petite cocktail. Only about one-tenth of the recipes in his book are claimed by Meier as his creations.

Frank Meier trained as a Bartender in New York for 7-months in 1902 at the famous Hoffman House Hotel. From 1908 to 1914, he ran his own bar in Paris, called the Brunswick Bar, with the first (single-lane) bowling alley in Europe. He fought with the French Foreign Legion in World War One from 1914 until honorably discharged in 1920.

In 1921, straight from his Military Service, Meier is appointed the inaugural Head-Bartender at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, running two bars, including the newly launched ‘American Bar’. A position of power and celebrity and of wealth, operating as a proprietor and sharing in the bar’s profits. He remained at the Ritz for 26-years until his death in 1947, including through-out the Second World War (1939–1945). In Tyler J Mazzeo’s 2014 book The Hôtel on Place Vendôme, using historical German police papers, he shows that Frank Meier was under Gestapo surveillance during the Second World War. He was suspected of transferring messages, being part of the French Resistance, and providing false papers to those trying to flee Paris.

It was claimed that the Ritz was neutral territory, a sort of ‘Switzerland in Paris’, but in reality it was protected by the Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Göering (1893–1946), commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe (air force), who set-up his quarters over an entire floor at the Ritz. Coco Chanel (1883–1971) lived there with her Nazi boyfriend Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage (1896–1974) a German Intelligence Agent, during the period of the German occupation. Chanel herself was directly involved in a plan for the Third Reich to take control of Madrid, and in significant antisemitic activity, especially where it helped her business interests, including letters specifically trying to wrest control from her Jewish business partners.

It is believed that at the same time Nazi’s were conducting interrogations at the Ritz, some of the hotel’s more than 400-staff were working with the French Resistance. In post-war dispatches Frank Meier’s support of the allies is documented, however the reality for senior hotel staff like Meier, must have been a difficult balance of managing and adjusting to both sides, before, during and after the Nazi occupation.

How Frank Meier died in 1947, age 63, remains unknown, he may have traveled to the South of France and may have been arrested. His grave is in Paris, but the cause of his death remains unclear, with cocktail historians who have researched Frank Meier trying to find these elusive details that cloud the end of his life and much of the other details of his life.

There is another different origin thread for the ‘Bee’s Knees’, that suggests Margaret Tobin Brown (1867–1932), perhaps better known as ‘The Unsinkable Molly Brown’ was the creator. The evidence being a 22 April 1929 article in the Standard Union reporting on ‘women only bars in Paris, France’, that includes the following attribution “the Bee’s Knees is an invention of Mrs. J J Brown of Denver and Paris, widow of the famous miner, and is a rather sweet combination including honey and lemon”. It would seem more likely that Molly Brown discovered Meier’s creation in Paris and brought it back to US social circles.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – The ‘Bee’s Knees’ is included on the International Bartender Association’s (IBA) ‘New Era Drinks’ list, here. The recipe calls for 22.5ml each of fresh orange and lemon juice, stirred with 2-teaspoons (10ml) of honey syrup until dissolved. Then shaken with 52.5ml of Dry Gin and ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass. With the option to garnish with lemon or orange zest.

TASTING NOTES – Frank Meier’s 1936 recipe is a petite cocktail, even allowing for “half a glass of Gin” to be 30ml, it is only about 50-60ml (2oz) in final construction. Nevertheless it makes for a very well balanced aperitif, sour, sweet, gin forward and with the classic honey aftertaste on the palate. Instead of hiding the Gin, as has sometime been said of Prohibition Era (1920–1933) low-grade Gin, this celebrates the Gin, simply adding sweet and sour notes. The more contemporary mixes that often combine citrus (lemon and orange) and use honey syrup are perhaps less acidic and gin-heavy but dial down the celebration of Gin that seems to be one of the hallmarks of the original.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – I have made both the Frank Meier 1936 classic and a more contemporary version (recipe above) that is close to the IBA official recipe, with slightly less citrus (5ml less) and slightly more Gin (7.5ml more) keeping the Gin as the hero of the cocktail.

I was very lucky to be able to use some 30-year or more old ‘Gordon’s London Dry’ for the Meier 1936 remake, maybe not 75-year-old Gin, but at least Gin from the 1900’s. Any London Dry Gin that is Juniper forward and not too contrasted on botanicals will work with this cocktail, citrus flavours and some heat (spice) work very well.

YOUR LOCKTAIL EXPERIENCE – If you’d rather taste than read, I am progressively building an ingredient list and other sourcing information on this site. I will re-use ingredients where I can (good for my budget too), so that the cost goes down overtime if you are ‘playing at home’.

Let me know what you think.

Cocktails you’d like reinvented.

Recipes you’ve tried and your ‘score’.

This is final cocktail from the 1941-1950 bracket of ‘Locktail’ remixes, and with all the connected intrigue of Frank Meier, a great way to end the World War Two era exploration. Full list of cocktails in the index.