Vermouth, shaken
Queen Elizabeth
Barline 1h,Q,Q,c
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 1 1/2 oz Dry vermouth
- 3/4 oz Bénédictine
- 3/4 oz Lime juice
Shake hard with ice, then strain.
Coupe.
Taste
An ounce and a half of dry vermouth, three-quarters of Bénédictine, three-quarters of lime. No base spirit. The liqueur is honey and herbs; the lime matches it, so the drink is tart as well as sweet. Shaken, coupe. Vermouth and Bénédictine, then pith.
History
Queen Elizabeth is a crowded name. The version here is the vermouth one: dry vermouth, Bénédictine, and lime, with no gin and no brandy. David Wondrich found the formula in a Bénédictine advertisement in the February 1935 Esquire, billed as the prize-winning recipe in a nationwide cocktail contest. Difford's Guide credits Herbert L. Quick, head bartender at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia in 1934, who named it for his wife, not the monarch. Other Queen Elizabeths in the manuals are gin drinks, or brandy and sweet vermouth. This menu pours an ounce and a half of dry vermouth and three-quarters each of Bénédictine and lime.
Same shape, other bottles
The Daisy family, with the bottle that changed.
- Vermouth-aritasweet vermouth and orange liqueur for dry vermouth and Bénédictine
- Final Wardlemon juice, Chartreuse, and maraschino liqueur for lime juice and Bénédictine
- Kamikazeorange liqueur for Bénédictine
- Last WordChartreuse and maraschino liqueur for Bénédictine
- Southern Pointlemon juice, elderflower liqueur, and orange liqueur for lime juice and Bénédictine
- Lani-Honilemon juice for lime juice
This is one drink on my home bar's menu. Tick the bottles you own and the menu lists which of all 185 drinks they pour.