The Surprising Secret Ingredient In Prince Charles' New Gin
Have a hankering for a gin and tonic a la royale? (And, let's be real, who doesn't in 2020?) Well now you officially have two competing royally-approved gins to choose from. If you'd like to be queenly (and live in the UK), go ahead dish out 40£ for a bottle of Queen Elizabeth's Buckingham Palace Gin, brewed using herbs hand-picked from the Buckingham Palace Gardens (via Royal Collection Shop). If, on the other hand, you're five quid short, don't panic. You can still prepare your favorite gin-based cocktail, royal style.
Heir to the British throne Prince Charles has now released his very own gin, which currently markets at 35£ a bottle and can be delivered internationally (via Highgrove Gardens). Master Distiller for The Oxford Artisan Distillery, Cory Mason, worked with Prince Charles to create the spirit. Mason said to the Daily Mail about the result of their joint efforts, "It is traditional, elegant, refined, but with complex herbal notes of a traditional English garden." That's in no large part because the prince's gin is brewed using one surprising ingredient.
Prince Charles' Highgrove Gin is made with this special ingredient from his garden
Similar to his mother Queen Elizabeth's Buckingham Palace gin, Prince Charles' spirit is made with herbs found in the gardens at his Gloucestershire home, Highgrove. But while Queen Elizabeth's gin sports lemon, verbena, mulberry leaves, and hawthorn berries (via Royal Collection Shop), Prince Charles' boasts lavender, sage, thyme, and one very special grain.
According to the Daily Mail, Prince Charles' royal gin is made with a rare organic heritage grain. What, you ask, is so special about that? The Kitchn explains that heritage grains are older grain varieties, often grown without pesticides and fertilizers. If you believe Heritage Flour Baking, products baked with heritage grains have more nutrients, more flavor, and are more easily digestible than those made using modern grain varieties. It helps, of course, that they have Prince Charles' royal stamp of approval. Canada's One Degree Organic Foods brags that His Royal Highness was so taken with their Red Fife heritage grain, that he took some bags of flour made using Red Fife wheat back to England with him. We'd like to think that he had his kitchen staff prepare mouthwatering Welsh cakes with the fancy flour, a scone-like baked good rumored to be one of the prince's favorites (via Teller Report).