Ross Finnegan’s Bumblebee cocktail recipe from The Palomar

Ross Finnegan, bar manager at The Palomar in London W1, provides a recipe for the Bumblebee, a cocktail noted for its ginger spice and aromatics from honey and London dry gin. The recipe serves one.

For the honey and ginger syrup the ingredients listed are 20g ginger and about 40ml English honey. For the drink the recipe calls for 10ml honey and ginger syrup, 20ml fresh lemon juice, 40ml London dry gin (the recipe uses Hayman’s) and a thick lemon slice (about ½cm) to garnish.

To make the syrup, soak the ginger in just enough cold water to cover, drain, peel with a teaspoon and slice into thin coins. Blend the ginger with 20ml water, strain through a fine sieve ideally lined with muslin, measure the resulting ginger liquid (about 40ml) and add equal parts honey, stirring to dissolve.

To build the cocktail, put the syrup and lemon juice in a shaker half-filled with ice, add the gin and shake hard. Strain into a chilled rocks glass filled with fresh ice, drop in the lemon slice and serve. The recipe advises the fresher the syrup and citrus the better: do not keep the syrup for longer than two days and always squeeze citrus fresh.

Key Topics

Culture, Ross Finnegan, Bumblebee Cocktail, The Palomar, London, Hayman's