It's Lilikoi season in Kona, or passion fruit for you mainlanders. This fruit has a strong sweet and sour flavor that makes it a great addition to pastries, desserts and drinks. Lilikoi flowers (in the photo on the left) are absolutely beautiful and depend on honeybees and carpenter bees for pollination. As a last resort, some people hand pollinate these flowers to ensure that they fruit. Here on the Big Island, you'll find Lilikoi vines growing everywhere including up telephone poles and along the side of the highway. 

The recipe below is for a cocktail made with Lilikoi juice and a simple syrup made from honey. There are lots of uses for simple syrup and its easy to make. Adding simple syrup instead of pure honey ensures a more even distribution of sweetener to your beverage and prevents most of the honey from falling to the bottom of the glass.

As always, we love hearing from you. What are your favorite honey cocktail recipes? Email them to us at contactus@bigislandbees.com and we'll feature your recipe next!