The Honey Bee — Oh Honey, Bee Inspired

This week at OHBI we've partnered with a talented bartender gal pal from New York and founder of Strug-Free Cocktails, Elise Taff. She has concocted a personalized cocktail for us that screams OHBI! We're so excited to share the recipe with y'all and tell you more about the strug free way!

Cocktail / Strug-Free Cocktails / Maria Shireen Bracelet / Summer drink

Let us create a scenario for you. You are craving a tasty cocktail so you head to the nearest "hip" bar. Does using the word hip show our age? Probably. You scope out the menu and find a drink that sounds like everything you've ever dreamed of. One small problem...there are a few ingredients that you can't even pronunce let alone know what they are. At this point you're convinced the words aren't even in English. You quickly try to Google translate the ingredients but end up cracking under the pressure and order something boring like a whiskey and soda. One way to avoid this scenario that we've all found ourselves in at least once is to tune into Strug Free Cocktails. Our girl Elise is here to give you the confidence to order drinks at those fancy pants bars and the courage to become a solid home bartender one drink at time. Plus she's fresher than a cold glass of lemonade, check her out below!

Photo provided by the one and only E-strugs and taken by Corey Sheppard from Halleloo Productions.

Strug Free and OHBI bring you the Honey Bee! We're confident this tasty libation will be your go to cocktail on a summer day...or any other day of the year. The best part is, in the words of Elise "I have already struggled so you don't have to!" Ladies and gentlemen she struggled to get us this wonderful cocktail and we reaped the benefits. Without further Ado here it is!

The recipe for your new favorite cocktail starts with the following ingredients:

1 1/2 oz Gin (We used Hendricks)

*2 oz Honeydew Melon Juice

*3/4 oz Honey Water

*1/4 oz Ginger Juice

1/2 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

Club Soda

Cocktail Ingredients / Trader Joes Organic Honey / Hendricks Gin / Fresh Fruit

Cocktail Ingredients / Fresh Fruit / Organic Trader Joe's Honey / Hendricks Gin

At this point you might be thinking we've tricked you into an actual STRUG-FULL cocktail. Before you start googling how to make Honey water, Honeydew Melon and Ginger juice let us give you the simple steps it takes to make these dreamy ingredients.

HONEY WATER:
The ratio for making honey water should be 2 to 1. If you're like us and plan on having more than one drink, we recommend mixing 1 cup of honey with 1/2 a cup of hot water and stir until it's blended.

HONEYDEW JUICE:
Toss about a cup of Honeydew into your blender with a splash of water and blend until it's a puree. We strained the juice because we're weird about textures in our drinks, if textures don't bother you then we encourage you to not be wasteful. If you're fancy and have a juicer you could use that instead but a blender works perfectly!

GINGER JUICE:
Head to your local Jamba Juice or juice shop and grab yourself 2-3 ginger shots. Again, unless you're a fancy gal and you have a juicer then go on and get your juice on, girl. At OHBI we like to keep things simple and don't have time for extra dishes, so we went to Jamba.

Pour all of the ingredients into a shaker and shake what ya momma gave ya. Top off this drink with a splash of club soda and garnish with a lemon wheel. ENJOY!

Fresh Lemon / Cocktail / Summer Drink / Pink Coasters

Pink Coasters / Lemon Napkins / Summer Cocktail

Make sure to tune into Strug-Free TV to keep up with her tasty and easy to follow recipies. Our girl Elise is the real deal and also hilarious. We're ALL about her vision of "If I can do it, you can do it" motto. Her main goal is to help people learn more about the cocktail world and feel a little less intimidated when ordering at the bar or trying new drinks. We also love the fun little fact that she started this series so her mom would stop texting her questions about cocktails. Mostly because we're just like her mom.