Queen Elizabeth's Official Favorite Hot Sauce Is Probably In Your Pantry

When you think of Queen Elizabeth II, you're probably not thinking about the food that she loved. The queen was a fan of British classics like chocolate biscuit cake, Earl Grey tea, and Sunday roast. But perhaps surprisingly, she was also a fan of the particularly American hot sauce, Tabasco sauce.

The love apparently goes way back, as noted in the queen's deputy controller of supply, Frederick John Corbitt's 1956 memoir "My Twenty Years In Buckingham Palace." He writes that during World War II, the Queen Mother's staff searched high and low for Tabasco sauce to use in a lobster cocktail she consumed regularly. It proved very difficult to obtain due to shortages, but the staff pulled it off. It's unclear if Queen Elizabeth grew up in a household that enjoyed Tabasco sauce or developed a taste for it another way. However, interestingly, in 2000, the BBC reported that she banned "any food that is too spicy or exotic." Perhaps Tabasco sauce was just right for her palate and not considered too extreme.

The queen gave Tabasco a royal warrant in 2009, which is a big deal. To earn a royal warrant, a company or individual must display excellence in quality and performance as well as provide goods or services to the royal family for at least five years. And the brand or person has to keep proving that they are worthy of the recognition.

The queen may have given Tabasco her seal of approval, but Americans have long known that the iconic Louisiana-made hot sauce is something special. The most popular origin story begins on Avery Island, Louisiana in 1868 when Edmund McIlhenny found some peppers growing near his home on the Gulf Coast. He came up with the recipe (basically Tabasco peppers, vinegar, and salt) and started making batches. The product quickly took off and became even more popular when modernization allowed larger-scale production of the hot sauce.

Today, many of the peppers are grown throughout Latin America, but the seed stock still comes from peppers grown on Avery Island. Once the peppers are grown and mashed, they are sent back to Louisiana. The process, though, is pretty much the same as it was in 1868. The mash is aged for around three years in white oak barrels. After three years is up, the mash comes out and is mixed with high quality, distilled vinegar. Tabasco brand hot sauces now come in nine different kinds, featuring other kinds of peppers and varying levels of heat. It was probably in the queen's pantry, and it's probably in yours.

Tabasco hot sauce isn't the only food item that has received a royal warrant from the queen — she bestowed royal warrants on other companies that produced food and drink products. For food products the queen appointed Paxton & Whitfield cheesemongers, Bendicks Ltd for chocolate mints, Cadbury UK Ltd, Carluccio's Ltd for Italian truffles, Kellogg's, Malden Crystal Salt Company, Musk's Ltd for sausages, and Walker's shortbread among others. For beverages, she appointed Schweppes Holdings, Johnnie Walker, Bacardi-Martini Ltd, Britvic Soft Drinks Ltd, and a number of different champagne purveyors among others (the queen did enjoy spirits such as a glass of champagne and was known to prefer Bollinger). She even gave a royal warrant for dog food — Judges Choice Petfood Ltd.

Receiving a warrant can boost a business and increase its profile in the U.K. It's nice that a classic Louisiana hot sauce got a royal shout out in this way.