For spring and summer, this honey-based cocktail can strike just the right tone: a light buzz.

We adapted it from the cocktail of the month, called Two Bees Walk Into A Bar, at Davio’s Italian Steakhouse in New York City.

It uses an easy-to-make honey simple syrup, infused with rosemary, that you can use in other drinks as well. A recipe for a Honey-Rosemary Martini is below.

RECIPE #1: HONEY & HONEY POLLEN COCKTAIL

Ingredients Per Drink

 
For The Honey Rosemary Simple Syrup

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*If you’re concerned about raw eggs, get pasteurized raw eggs.
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Preparation

1. MAKE the simple syrup. Combine the water and honey in a small pot over medium heat and whisk until the honey dissolves. Add the rosemary and cook over low heat for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat; cover the pan and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, until cool. Strain and discard the rosemary, and store the syrup in an airtight jar.

2. COMBINE the other ingredients (except ice and garnish) in cocktail shaker and shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Add the ice and shake for another 30 seconds.

3. STRAIN into an 8-ounce glass (the photo shows a large Martini glass). Sprinkle with bee pollen and serve.
 
BENEFITS OF BEE POLLEN

Bee pollen is made by bees as food for their young. It is considered one of nature’s most completely nourishing foods, containing nearly all nutrients required by humans, including approximately 40% protein.

For this reason, it is a valued nutritional supplement, but has also become fashionable as a garnish. Consider this a most nutritious cocktail.

[1] A honey of a cocktail, from Davio’s Manhattan. [2] Fresh rosemary (photo courtesy Burpee). [3] Bee pollen. Here’s more about it from Shape Magazine.

RECIPE #2: ROSEMARY-HONEY MARTINI

You can make a sweeter cocktail with a bit more simple syrup (proceed cautiously); or a less sweet cocktail by adding more vermouth.

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. ADD 6 ice cubes to a cocktail shaker, followed by the other ingredients.

2. SHAKE vigorously and pour into a Martini glass. Garnish with fresh rosemary.

[1] Decorated éclairs by Master Pastry Chef Michel Richard at Pomme Palais in New York Palace Hotel.

[2] Éclairs decorated by pastry great Johnny Iuzzini for Le Meridien hotels.

[3] Simple and elegant decoration with pecans. Or, get festive with a mixture of nuts, including pistachios and macadamias (photo © Dilyara Garifullina | Unsplash).

[4] Just about any decoration for cupcakes will work on éclairs. These are from Amazon.

[5] The Dsmile decorating pen makes it easy to decorate with designs or writing.

Updated June 2026

Éclairs are a special-occasion pastry. A tempting custard-filled choux pastry shell topped with a chocolate (or other) glaze, only sugar-avoiders would turn down the opportunity to have one.

Yet, the elongated pastry with the shiny chocolate, caramel, or vanilla glaze can be even more exciting. Just look at the photos, to see what great pastry chefs do with them.

While it takes some skill to make attractive éclairs from scratch, its pretty easy to decorate ones you purchase.

You’ll find the ready-to-buy éclairs with classic chocolate and caramel toppings at a good bakery.

But at a sophisticated bakery, you may also find a rainbow of colors and flavors: coffee, currant (pink), dulce de leche, lemon, mango, matcha, pistachio, raspberry, and probably these days, ube (purple).

One of our favorite parties ever was a DIY éclair design tea party for a friend’s birthday. Both men and women came to Sunday tea, and all have been clamoring for an encore.

June 22nd is National Éclair Day, and National Pastry Day is December 9th, the latter and opportunity to decorate Christmas éclairs.

Not to mention Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.

Anytime you host it, your éclair party will be memorable.

If it’s a celebration party (baby, birthday, promotion, whatever), you can give the celebrant the gift of a cake decorating pen (photo #5, under $10), which makes it easy to write and decorate with icing, and to affix decorations.

Below:

> What you need to decorate your éclairs.

> The history of the éclair.

Elsewhere on The Nibble:

> The history of pastry.

> The history of dessert.

> The different types of pies and pastries: a photo glossary.

> The year’s 15+ pastry holidays.

> The year’s 30+ pie and cobbler holidays.

> The year’s dessert holidays, January-July (more than 100!)

> The year’s dessert holidays, August-December (more than 80!)
 
 
DECORATING INGREDIENTS FOR THE ECLAIRS

Whether you buy the eclairs or make your own, here’s what you need.

DECORATIONS

For specialty items, check out sources like Amazon (search for cupcake decorations) plus professional sites like Bakell, Pastry Chef’s Boutique, and The Sugar Art.

For your consideration:

 
More sweet ingredients:

 
Savory ingredients:

 
FIXATIVES

Since the glaze (shiny icing) on top of the éclair will be set, you need a bit of something to adhere the decorations, plus utensils or squeeze bottles to dab them on.

An elongated, finger-shaped pastry made of pâte à choux (puff pastry), filled with whipped cream or custard and topped with a glacé icing (glaze), the éclair originated in France around the turn of the 19th century.

Éclair is the French word for lightning. Food historians believe that the pastry received its name because it glistens when coated with the glaze. We might suggest that it is because they are so popular that they disappear as quickly as lightning.

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the word “éclair” in the English language to the second half of the 19th century: 1861. In the U.S., the first printed recipe for éclairs appears even later, in the 1884 edition of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, edited by Mrs. D.A. Lincoln (later editions were under the auspices of Fanny Farmer).
 
Created By The First “Celebrity Chef,” Marie-Antoine Carême

Many food historians believe that éclairs were first made by Marie-Antoine Carême (1874-1833).

This brilliant man, cast out to make his own way at the age of 10 by his impoverished family, became the first “celebrity chef,” working for luminaries: Charles, Prince Talleyrand, the French ambassador to Britain; the future George IV of England; Emperor Alexander I of Russia and Baron James de Rothschild.

The elite clamored for invitations to dinners cooked by Carême.

He is considered to be the founder and architect of French haute cuisine; an innovator of cuisine, both visually (he studied architectural to create amazing presentations) and functionally (modern mayonnaise, for example). He also was an enormously popular cookbook author—an big achievement for a boy who had no education, yet taught himself to read and write.

We can only dream…and live vicariously by reading his biography.

Carême began his career as a pâtissier (pastry chef), and created:

 
On the savory side he created:

 
While most people know Georges Auguste Escoffier and have never heard of Marie-Antoine Carême, his early documentation of culinary sauces, his structural, artistic approach revolutionized both the savory and sweet sides of the kitchen. Escoffier was born more than a decade after Carême passed away.
 
Both were gigantic contributors to French cuisine:

 

[7] Chef Carême making éclairs (illustration: The Nibble | Abacus).
 
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*Escoffier reclassified Allemande as a secondary sauce and added Tomate and Hollandaise to established the five Mother Sauces used by chefs today.
 

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We saw this photo on Tajín’s Facebook page, but couldn’t find a recipe.

Fortunately, it’s not too difficult to slice bell peppers and drop an egg inside each slice—along with some mildly spicy Tajín seasoning (it’s a cayenne, lime and salt blend).

We thought: What else can we make with a bell pepper rim?

Cooked Foods

 
Uncooked Foods

If the food isn’t cohesive enough to be mounded, make the slices taller; or trim a bit of the bottom of a half or whole pepper so it will stand.

 

ABOUT TAJÍN SEASONING

In Mexico, this spice blend of cayenne, lime and salt (photo #3) is used on just about anything, savory and sweet:

 
 
GOOD MELTING CHEESES

Good melting cheeses include, among others:

[2] Enjoy as is, or in the center of a yummy bowl of greens (photo © Hope Foods).

[3] Tajín seasoning: cayenne, lime and salt (photo © Tajín).

[1] Something different: a chili powder rim instead of salt. Or, mix the two. At Richard Sandoval restaurants.

[2] A cayenne rim (Tajin seasoning) on a guava Margarita at Dos Caminos restaurants.

[3] Smoked salt rims a classic Margarita from Noble Tequila.

 
 
DIFFERENT MARGARITA RIMS: BEYOND THE COARSE SALT

First, there’s no need to buy “Margarita salt”: It’s just kosher salt with a higher price. You can also use coarse sea salt.

But how about something other than coarse salt? The 70% of survey participants who want a salt rim might like a change of pace.

Here are some options that complement a Margarita.

You can use another rimmer that still maintains the spirit of the Margarita (and maybe attracts people who don’t want the extra salt).

Flavored salt. There’s flavored salt, of course, in scores of variations from bacon, chipotle, smoked salts (alderwood, chardonnay oak, hickory or mesquite-smoked).

Colored salt. You can get dramatic, with black lava or Cypress black salt, or red Hawaiian alaea salt. You can get pretty, with pink Himalayan salt.

Heat. You can add heat with ghost pepper, habanero, jalapeño, and sriracha-flavored salts.

Or just use “hot” spices from your kitchen for the rim: cayenne, Tajin seasoning (cayenne-based), chili powder or crushed chile flakes—straight or mixed with kosher salt.

If you think hot rims might be too intense, make the currently trending half-rim (photo #2).

Fruitiness. You can add fruitiness with lemon, lime and mango-flavored salts.

Herbaceousness. You can buy blends of salts and herbs, or mix your own. Or use straight minced cilantro, or other fresh herbs.

For starters, take a look at Seasalt.com.
 
 
MORE ABOUT MARGARITAS

Go luxe this Cinco de Mayo with lobster-topped guacamole (recipe below).

RA Sushi, a small restaurant group in the southern U.S., has imagination and class.

With locations in Atlanta, Arizona (5 locations), Baltimore, Chicago, Florida (3), Leawood, Kansas, Las Vegas, Southern California (5) and Texas (6), sushi lovers can experience creations that the sushi bars we frequent can only aspire to.

While neither sushi nor sashmi, we picked this tasty dish as the one we’d most like to have for Cinco de Mayo:

A lettuce cup of guacamole, topped with a king’s ransom of lobster.

We’d also like to have it for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and, oh…any day.

You don’t even need to cook anything: Just assemble the ingredients.

We’re making ours with a garnish of salmon caviar (ikura in Japanese—photo #2). Tobiko or any whitefish caviar (they’re available in several flavors) will do just fine.

We’re also making a chunky guacamole, a better texture contrast with the lobster.

If you’re a really affluent foodie, sturgeon caviar is not discouraged.

You may notice the plate garnish in the photo includes herbs, spices and a drizzle of flavored olive oil. Plate garnishes add not only color and texture, but extra bits of flavor.
 
 
RECIPE: LOBSTER-TOPPED GUACAMOLE-LETTUCE CUP

[1] What better topping for guacamole than this creation, from RA Sushi?

[2] Salmon caviar, ikura in Japanese (photo courtesy Petrossian).

With flavorful guacamole, you don’t need much more than lime juice as a dressing. But for those who want more:

 
A simple drizzle of basil olive oil with fresh lime juice is also delicious.
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*Affordable caviar types include capelin (masago in Japanese), flying fish (tobiko in Japanese), lumpfish, salmon, trout or whitefish roe. The latter two are often available flavored, with everything from mango to truffle to wasabi. They are delicious!