Mocktails are all the rage right now, and Princess Kate recently admitted that she doesn't drink much these days. But decades ago, it wasn’t as common to abstain from alcohol, especially within Britain. Queen Elizabeth enjoyed a gin and Dubonnet as part of her daily routine at Buckingham Palace, but her alcohol consumption came nothing close to the Queen Mother’s. Princess Margaret also was fond of a drink, but according to royal biographer Robert Hardman, Queen Elizabeth and her children didn’t follow their family members’ influence.
Describing her “tastes in both food and drink” as “unexotic,” Hardman wrote in his new biography of Queen Elizabeth that her “consumption” of everything was “careful” as compared to her sister, Margaret, and the Queen Mother.
