ELIZABETH II’S DAILY COCKTAIL IS A BALANCE OF HISTORY AND FLAVOUR

If moved to design a recipe for longevity, to assure a healthy and happy life, one need look no further than the daily habits of the Commonwealth’s longest-reigning monarch: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022). Revered for the dignified manner of her reign, she steered her kingdom through 70 years of its often tempestuous history, unflappable and unfailing in her duty.

It is well documented that the beloved Queen managed the substantial weight of her crown by keeping sacrosanct a few private daily rituals: a morning cup of Earl Grey, which she brewed herself; a favourite cocktail, mixed for her by her personal footman; and the composition of a diary entry before bed each night, “no matter how late the hour or how weary she may be,” as reported by palace staff. But what, pray tell, was this royally fortifying cocktail? As it turns out, it is a splendid classic from the golden age of bartending: a Dubonnet and gin on ice, known to the professional drinks trade as the “Dubonnet Cocktail.”

Elegant in its simplicity, the Dubonnet Cocktail is found in respected cocktail guidebooks as far back as 1917. It enjoyed its heyday in American and British dancehalls and clubs throughout the Roaring Twenties. It marries the great British contribution to world spirit culture, London Dry Gin, with an equal measure of the French aperitif Dubonnet, an herbaceous fortified wine first produced across the pond in 1846.

Her Majesty insisted on Gordon’s London Dry to provide the drink’s fortification, a bracing yet inexpensive gin beloved throughout her domain. In the far reaches of the old Empire, British officers would take their gin with tonic water, with its infusion of bitter quinine to stave off the threat of scurvy. French legionnaires abroad, however, relied on wine fortified with quinine to keep the devil from the door, and Dubonnet is a refined example of these quinaquinas. And so, this pairing with gin within its namesake cocktail unites the neighbouring nations in both good health and history.

The monarch making her own tea in the morning was a royal habit initiated by George III, while the preparation of the pre-luncheon Dubonnet Cocktail was a tradition started by The Queen Mother (1900–2002). She preferred slightly more Dubonnet than gin in her version, at a ratio of two to one. If you would like to prepare Elizabeth II’s precise version of her midday tipple for yourself, its beauty lies in the simplicity of its preparation. According to one palace footman, shortly before one o’clock each day, the Queen would enjoy a large glass of her favourite pre-luncheon tipple, gin and Dubonnet, in equal half measures, with two lumps of ice and a slice of lemon.

BY SIMON OGDEN

In fond memory of late Gstaad habituée Mrs Anne Dubonnet Shaio