Honey Mix
A 1:1 dilution of honey and warm water. Used as a substitute for honey in cocktail recipes because honey is too thick to integrate properly when shaken or stirred cold. Required for canonical builds including the Navy Grog and the QB Cooler.
Honey is a great cocktail sweetener in principle and a terrible one in practice. Its viscosity at room temperature is fine; its viscosity at cocktail-shaking temperatures (heavily diluted with ice) is too high to integrate evenly. Pour cold honey into a shaker and you’ll find a glob of unmixed honey at the bottom when you strain.
The 1:1 mix has roughly the viscosity of simple syrup at the same temperature, integrates cleanly with cold cocktails, and tastes recognizably of honey. The dilution does cut the sweetness in half, so recipes calling for honey mix specify larger volumes than they would for raw honey or simple syrup.
Honey mix is required for
- Navy Grog (one of Donn Beach’s signature builds)
- QB Cooler
- Three Dots and a Dash uses a smaller amount
- Various other Donn Beach reconstructions in Sippin’ Safari
Using a different honey changes the flavor of the mix and therefore the cocktail. Wildflower or orange-blossom honey is the safe default; clover honey is fine; specialty single-varietal honeys (buckwheat, manuka) will produce noticeably different cocktails and can be worth experimenting with.