The Sweet French Cocktail That The Queen Loved More Than Any Other

FDR once served hot dogs to King George VI as part of a diplomatic picnic, but Queen Elizabeth II, the king's daughter, had a different party style. According to County & Townhouse, at royal affairs, drinks were passed around on elegant silver trays. A single gin and Dubonnet cocktail was concocted, and everyone in the room knew that one was reserved for Her Majesty. When it comes to the favorite drinks of the British royal family, the late Queen adored her gin and Dubonnet, preferably in a petite wine glass.

QEII got her taste for gin and Dubonnet from her mother, Queen Elizabeth (another regal guest at the Roosevelt hot dog lunch), who first enjoyed the drinks during their British heyday in the 1920s. The elder Queen Liz was known to tipple on Dubonnet and gin during morning picnics, and Elizabeth II followed in her mother's footsteps, liking the cocktail as a pre-lunch aperitif long after it fell out of fashion with mixologists. 

The French have favored Dubonnet as an appetite stimulant for over 150 years. It's traditionally made of fortified wine, either white or red. In America, Dubonnet is made of California wines with a brandy backbone, but the British imports are flavored with herbs, spices, and/or quinine. To make Queen Elizabeth's cocktail, you put a slice of lemon in the bottom of a glass, drop ice cubes atop it to release the scent and flavor, and mix in a ratio of two parts Dubonnet to one part gin. There are several different types of gin, but the Queen favored Gordon's London dry gin.

In the wake of the Queen's 2022 death, sales of Dubonnet spiked, even leading to shortages in some places, according to anecdotal reports. From one end of the internet to the other, folks have taken an interest in replicating Elizabeth II's favorite drink, and occasionally, riffing on it. Some Redditors found that they preferred the Dubonnet and gin with orange slice or peel, and even claimed this was how the Queen Mother took hers. "I love a G&D," one comment reported. "The alternative garnish is orange slice, which I prefer. I think the additional sweetness works better, and the orange works with the spice notes in the Dubonnet." On Facebook, one writer attempting the cocktail was (pleasantly) taken aback by the results: "It's much sweeter than I thought it would be, but I like it." Notably, some internet resources call for augmenting the cocktail with a splash of orange bitters.

Cynthia McCloud Woodman of the "What a Girl Eats" blog, pictured a slightly more regal take on the Dubonnet and gin, and shook hers in a cocktail mixer before pouring it over crushed ice to really appreciate the pink color. "The Queen's cocktail is not too sweet and is a perfect balance to herbaceous gin," she opined, contradicting other reports that the drink could be a bit cloying. Another blogger, over on Comfort du Jour, chimed in with their own take on the controversial topic of the sweetness: "I can taste why this drink was a favorite for Queen Elizabeth II, and also for her mom, The Queen Mother. It's light, just sweet enough to be enjoyable, yet with a touch of bitter to spur the appetite."