Drink and a nosh: Bee's Knees and sesame cashews

The impetus for this cocktail was a fairly newish tea from Harney's called Bee's Knees that's reminiscent of the 1920s cocktail of that name. 

Here's the ingredients list for the tea: White tea, juniper berries, lemon peel, gin flavor, honey flavor, lemon flavor. Yes, please. It's a quite lovely tea for afternoon sipping, so I was curious to try the original inspiration.

Bee's Knees
Adapted from TeaSip, which recommended lavender honey tea for steeping the gin. I went with Harney's Bee's Knees.

Ingredients
2 ounces gin
1 tablespoon tea leaves
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons water
1 ounce lemon juice
Lemon wheel or peel for garnish

Method
Put tea leaves in a steeper and let steep in the gin for 30 minutes. (Or you could add the leaves directly and then strain out the leaves.)

To make honey simple syrup, combine honey and water in a pot and heat until honey dissolves into the water. Remove from heat and let cool.

Combine steeped gin, honey simple syrup.and lemon juice with ice in a shaker. Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon wheel or peel.

Rating: Looks prettier than it tastes. Not sure if the tea leaves brought anything to the party. Probably better to savor it as a warm cup of tea, where you get the bouquet of the cocktail on the nose without the sharpness. The tea is a keeper; this variation of a Bee's Knees not so much.

 

Sesame cashews
From “Apéritif” by Rebekah Peppler. While the book mainly focuses on cocktails, it includes a section on some noshes in the back, since woman does not live by cocktails alone.

Ingredients
2 cups raw cashews
2 teaspoons coconut oil, melted
2 tablespoons light, runny honey
½ teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more for finishing
¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
Pinch of cayenne pepper
¼ cup sesame seeds

Method
Preheat oven to 325. Mix cashews and melted coconut oil in a bowl. Spread on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Bake until light brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix honey, salt, paprika and cayenne in the same bowl as you mixed up the nuts with the oil. When the nuts are done toasting, toss them with the honey mixture to coat well. Stir in sesame seeds. Spread in an even layer on the baking sheet and return pan to the oven for another 8 to 10 minutes until golden and fragrant. Sprinkle with more sea salt and let cool completely.

Rating: Really pretty gosh darn tasty. They have just the barest hint of heat and aren’t overly salty. I can attest that they pair rather too well with red wine and dark beer, and are reasonably inhale-able. Luckily the recipe makes a fair amount. Mild stickiness factor, but not so much as to not be OK in a finger food setting. They keep fairly well so you can make them ahead; in fact I think they were slightly better the next day. They come together quickly, too, and don't mess up too many dishes, so all the way around a keeper. Mine don’t look quite as pretty as the picture in the book since the seed coating wasn't as even. Guess I’ll have to practice. 

Play along: Lost at Sea by Squirrel Nut Zippers