Drink for the Bees During Bee’s Knees Week

Caledonia Spirits Instagram

The distilling gurus at Vermont-based Caledonia Spirits, makers of Barr Hill Gin (and a slew of award-winning spirits that incorporate raw honey), know that with great gin comes great responsibility. You can help them support their hardest workers — the bees! — just by visiting some of your favorite watering holes between now and Sunday, October 2nd during Bee’s Knees Week.

Bees are responsible for 1 in every 3 bites of food we take, but they face multiple threats including pesticides, mites, loss of habitat and Colony Collapse Disorder. The good news is that all you have to do to give the bees some love is to drink a Bee’s Knees cocktail, snap a photo and share it on social with #beeskneesweek and tag @barrhillgin. For every photo shared, Caledonia Spirits will plant 10 square feet of bee habitat.

No two Bee’s Knees bevvies are the same, so you can do a tasting tour all around town (scroll through all the participating venues online here). Peep the slideshow below to peruse a sampling of available sips including the Bees Please! from Myers + Chang, the Bitter Bee at Pammy’s, Rail Stop’s house Bee’s Knees, the Basic Bee from the team at The Salty Pig, The Butcher Shop‘s Bee’s Teaz and The Hourly Oyster House‘s B-Reel (or their booze-free Milk & Honey Milkshake). Other hangouts getting in on the apiary action include ToroWoods Hill Table, Novara and Waypoint, where they hosted a whole Bee’s Knees Week party on Saturday, September 24th. You can have a bit of honey every night of the week (and then some).

For more about Bee’s Knees Week, finding participating bars and restaurants, and saving bee habitat check out Caledonia’s website, and follow them on their socials (FB, IG and Twitter) for all the pics from #beeskneesweek.

  • Pammy's Bitter Bee with Barr Hill Tom Cat Gin, Martini & Rossi Fiero Aperitivo, fresh grapefruit and lemon juices, and Barr Hill honey syrup
  • Salty Pig's Basic Bee with Barr Hill Gin, cinnamon honey and lemon juice
  • The Hourly's B-Reel with Barr Hill Gin, honey, lemon and yuzu soda; and the booze-free Milk & Honey milkshake
  • Myers + Chang's Bees Please! with yuzu, ginger, honey and Barr Hill Gin
  • Rail Stop's house Bee’s Knees with Barr Hill Gin, lemon juice, honey and an edible hibiscus flower
  • The Butcher Shop's Bee's Teaz with Barr Hill Gin, honey, cranberries, ginger and kombucha
  • Toro's Barr Hill Gin with Atxa Pacharan, raw honey and lemon juice
  • Choose from three (or try them all if you a bee super fan) Bee's Knees Week cocktails at Woods Hill Table
  • Novara's Trade Winds with Barr Hill Gin, chamomile honey simple syrup and lemon, garnished with dried flowers

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