Yellow Jacket
Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 22.9% ABV ∙
The Yellow Jacket is a gin sour of London dry gin, a honeyed herbal liqueur such as Yellow Chartreuse, lemon juice and honey syrup. Silky and bright, the shaken texture softens sharp citrus into a rounded, honeyed finish, with a whisper of herbal warmth lingering beneath a clean spirit backbone.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake all ingredients with ice: London dry gin 50 mlHerbal liqueur (e.g., Yellow Chartreuse) 10 mlLemon juice 25 mlHoney syrup 15 ml
- Fine strain into the chilled glass
- Express a lemon twist over the cocktail and use as garnish
Tips
- Express the lemon twist directly over the glass just before serving to release its oils onto the surface.
- Pre-chill the coupe while shaking so the fine-strained drink stays cold longer once poured.
- Shake hard for a full 10-12 seconds to fully emulsify the honey syrup with the citrus and gin.
History
The gin-based Yellow Jacket is a modern riff on the Bee's Knees, swapping in Yellow Chartreuse for part of the honey-lemon-gin base to add herbal, floral depth. Its name plays on the American term "yellow jacket" for a wasp, echoing the parent drink's "bee" while distinguishing it from an unrelated tequila-based cocktail of the same name created at the New York bar Employees Only, with which it shares only the Chartreuse.
The Bee's Knees itself is a Prohibition-era cocktail of gin, lemon juice, and honey whose exact origin is disputed. It is sometimes credited to Frank Meier, the bartender at the Ritz Hotel's Cafe Parisian in Paris starting in 1921, while a 1929 news account instead named American socialite Margaret Brown as its creator. The honey and lemon were widely said to help mask the harshness of Prohibition-era bathtub gin, giving the drink its enduring gin-honey-lemon template that later spawned riffs such as the Yellow Jacket.
FAQ
What's in a Yellow Jacket drink?
London dry gin, a honeyed herbal liqueur such as Yellow Chartreuse, fresh lemon juice, and honey syrup, shaken and fine-strained into a chilled glass with an expressed lemon twist.
How do you make a Yellow Jacket cocktail?
Shake the gin, herbal liqueur, lemon juice, and honey syrup hard with ice, then fine-strain into a pre-chilled coupe. Finish by expressing a lemon twist over the drink and dropping it in as garnish.
