Our nearest and dearest often know us better than we know ourselves and Queen Elizabeth learnt the hard way that her family couldn't be trusted with her go-to sweet treat. The late monarch was a big chocolate lover - so much so that she apparently brought a box of them with her whenever she came to stay with her friend and cousin, Lady Pamela Hicks.
Recalling this habit on the ITV documentary, My Years With the Queen, Lady Pamela revealed how Her Majesty would keep her private box out of reach.
"She does have her own box of chocolates, which she has learnt to keep in her room otherwise, she says the family are so greedy they all eat them before she can," she remarked, before clarifying, "Not our family, *her* family".
From the sounds of it, the Royal Family weren't shy about snaffling Queen Elizabeth's chocolates and the thought of her keeping a box safely stored away in her bedroom is iconic. For someone who selflessly dedicated her life to service, she earned the right to be a little protective over one of her few indulgences.
Her favourite chocolates were Charbonnel & Walker, which fans have even spotted on a table at Windsor Castle in a photo before. The Queen was also partial to Bendicks Bittermints and both have held Royal Warrants in the past, though King Charles has renewed the warrant for Bendicks.
Perhaps this signals that he is a big fan of their bittermints too. Could they even be the very same type of chocolates that the royals would eat before Queen Elizabeth? We might never know, but it wasn't just her family members Her Majesty had to worry about.
Keeping her box of chocolates in her room (she also always brought one for her host) sounds safe, yet Lady Pamela's pet mongoose, Neola, managed to sample them once.
"One evening we were waiting for her to come down for dinner," explained Pamela, who was also the Queen's former Lady-in-Waiting. "And it was very unusual for the Queen that she was four or five minutes late. And she said to me, 'I don't mind Neola coming into my room. In fact, I quite enjoy it. I don't mind Neola opening my box of chocolates, but does he have, always, to take just a bite out of every one?'"
This seemingly only happened once given how Lady Hicks described it and her laughter suggests Queen Elizabeth wasn’t overly annoyed. It’s more surprising perhaps that a mongoose enjoyed them enough to keep coming back for more, especially as former royal chef Darren McGrady has shared that the monarch loved dark chocolate - "the darker, the better".
On his website, Darren also claimed that Chocolate Biscuit Cake was her "favourite afternoon tea cake by far" and was "probably the only one that [was] sent into the Royal dining room again and again until it [had] all gone". Made from melted chocolate, butter, sugar and crushed biscuits, this was also served at Prince William and Kate’s wedding.
She might have closely guarded her box of chocolates, but she was more than happy to share Chocolate Biscuit Cake with her family.
"This chocolate biscuit cake was Prince William’s groom’s cake at his wedding. The reason he chose it is that he used to go to tea with the Queen and he got a taste for it. That is when he started liking it."
