The Bee's Knees is the cocktail that combines gin, lemon juice and honey and became associated with Prohibition-era America.
Its name is a 1920s slang expression meaning something excellent or outstanding. The drink is commonly described as a Prohibition-era cocktail because honey helped soften the taste of rough homemade gin, although its exact origin is debated.
A typical recipe uses gin, fresh lemon juice and honey syrup. Honey does not dissolve easily in cold liquid, so bartenders generally dilute it with warm water first to make honey syrup. The balance can vary, but the defining sweetener is honey rather than ordinary sugar syrup.
The Bee's Knees is sometimes confused with the Gold Rush, a later whiskey cocktail also built around lemon and honey. The key difference is the base spirit: the Bee's Knees uses gin. It is also distinct from the White Lady, which uses orange liqueur instead of honey.