Skylon launches new beehive installation and honey cocktail menu to support the bumblebee population
Skylon will be launching a beehive installation transporting guests into a dripping honeycomb of dreams. Expect a visual spectacle for the senses as the sweet taste will immerse diners and drinkers into a beehive utopia. Skylon, situated on Southbank, has collaborated with Laurent Perrier to design three cocktails, each focussing on the versatility of the Champagne while enhancing the unctuous floral flavour of honey. This is also in support of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust where £1.00 will be added to each person’s bar bill and donated back to the charity.
Diners will have the chance to enter Skylon’s fantasy beehive filled with beautiful flowers and summer blooms whilst sipping on their chosen tipple. The menu includes the Bee Old Fashioned, Honey! featuring a muddle of Bulleit bourbon, apple, hazelnut, orange, applewood honey smoke, and Laurent Perrier Cuvée. This smoky cocktail boasts autumnal flavours with a welcoming hit of sweet and nutty undertones. Next up, the Honey Bear, made with Zacapa 23yr rum, amaretto, turmeric, honey, peach, citrus and Laurent Perrier Cuvée, is a delightfully refreshing drink with mild spicy notes.
Finally, Queen Bee is the ultimate sundowner, featuring Tanqueray No10 gin, Hibiscus, Pimms cup No1, wild berry shrub, honey paint and Laurent Perrier Cuvée Rose. Complex, herbal and a true taste of summer. Guests that dine in the bar between June and September will have £1.00 added to their bill which will then be donated to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. With bumblebees declining dramatically in the UK, this has a devastating effect on our crops and wildflowers, as well as food and drink production.
Every penny that goes into the trust ensures a better future for the bees. According to Professor Dave Goulson, director of The Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Britain once boasted 25 native bumblebee species.
Three have disappeared in the last 50 years, ten are currently ‘severely threatened’, and two are ‘tethering on the edge of extinction and could be gone in five to ten years quite easily’. For eats, the restaurant will also serve a honey-inspired dessert to coincide with the installation, entitled the Honey Nut Hive. A textural delight, the pudding comprises a toasted walnut cake and burnt honey ice cream, topped with shards of honeycomb and bee pollen. – Bee Old Fashioned, Honey! £16.50 – Honey Bear £17.50 – Queen Bee £22.00
Skylon | Belvedere Road | Royal Festival Hall | London SE1 8XX
www.skylon-restaurant.co.uk | @skylonrestaurant