7 October 2019

Bermondsey Street Bees, based in London, have raised more than a £1,000 for the BBKA's Apiary & Education Project. The money mostly comes from a honey cocktails event they held with Aberfeldy Whisky.

Sarah Wyndham-Lewis from Bermondsey St Bees explained: "In 2018 Dewar's Aberfeldy Global Brand Ambassador, Georgie Bell, approached Bermondsey Street Bees to collaborate on a 5 year long worldwide project supporting honeybees. 

"Aberfeldy's original thought was to donate beehive to key bar locations, starting in London, unaware that London already has the densest population of honeybees in Europe and a continuing loss of foraging areas. 

"Bermondsey Street Bees discussed this with them and a more powerful concept began to evolve. Aberfeldy would educate bartenders to throw away the squeezy bottle of processed supermarket honey and instead source raw honey from their own localities to put in their drinks. They would thus be directly supporting local beekeepers and putting money straight back into the grassroots of beekeeping as well as giving a new flavour dimension to their drinks. Planting for pollinators is another aspect of the Barrels & Bees project."

Sarah said: "Increasingly, just like chefs, bartenders are opinion formers and influencers taking extraordinary care in their sourcing, looking for sustainably produced products with a local twist to them. Aberfeldy correctly identified the fact that most bartenders had not yet extended this thinking to the honey they use in such large quantities as honey cocktails are always amongst the biggest selling drinks in cocktail bars.

So throughout the summer of 2019 we rain a series of bartender training events at our Charterhouse London training apiary. Attendees came from all over northern Europe for a hands-on bee experience, raw honey tasting with me ( I am a trained Honey Sommelier) and information on how they can make positive environmental impacts by planting for pollinators and using raw honeys sourced directly from their own local beekeepers. 

In parallel with this, the Aberfeldy team have been taking the Barrels & Bees project across the world and are meeting an incredible response, way beyond what any of us originally anticipated!"

In September, there is a Bermondsey Street Festival which attracts around 40,000 visitors every year. Aberfeldy were invited to run a cocktail bar outside Bermondsey Street Bees and they donated every penny of profit to the BBKA!

You will find two of the recipes they used for Honey cocktails below and we are very grateful for their contribution to our Apiary & Education project:  

The Honey Highball

35ml Aberfeldy 12 year old whisky

50 ml Chamomile tea

50ml soda 

20ml Bermondsey Street Bees ( made into a 1:1 syrup with water) 

The Waggle Dance

35ml Aberfeldy 12 year old whisky

50ml Earl Grey tea

15ml fresh lemon juice

15ml Bermondsey Street Bees honey syrup ( made as above) 

15ml peach liqueur

You can donate to the Apiary & Education Project here:https://www.bbka.org.uk/Appeal/donate

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