Gypsy Queen
A Gypsy Queen is 60ml of vodka, 30ml of Bénédictine and a dash of Angostura, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick and Nora glass, with a lemon twist. About 3.6 UK units, more than most stirred drinks of its size, because Bénédictine is 40% on its maker’s product page, as strong as the vodka at our working figure of 40%. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, reports that the drinks historian David Wondrich found the earliest known reference in a 1938 booklet from the Russian Tea Room in New York, which makes it one of the earliest vodka cocktails in the USA. David Embury, in 1948, gave the original as one part Bénédictine to two of vodka, the ratio we use, and thought it rather sweet, by Difford’s Guide’s quotation of The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. Vodka adds strength and little flavour, so Bénédictine is what you taste: honey, warm spice and herbs. The bitters and the lemon oil keep it from turning syrupy.
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: Lemon twist
Ingredients
60ml
A clean vodka at 40% ABV. It brings strength and very little flavour, which leaves the liqueur exposed. One with a little body suits it better than the lightest.
30ml
A French herbal liqueur at 40% ABV on its maker’s product page, with honey in a secret recipe. At 30ml it is the flavour of the drink, not a seasoning.
1 dash
One dash, about 0.8ml at 44.7% ABV. It dries the finish against the honey. Embury’s recipe, as Difford’s Guide quotes it, took orange bitters, which make a brighter, less spiced drink.
Instructions
Chill a Nick and Nora glass.
Add the vodka, Bénédictine and Angostura to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Strain into the chilled glass.
Express a lemon twist over the surface and drop it in.
Our version
Difford’s Guide quotes Embury giving the original as one part Bénédictine to two of vodka and preferring five or six parts vodka to one, and his own recipe takes a dash of orange bitters. Ours keeps the original ratio, 60ml to 30ml, with a dash of Angostura.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Decide how sweet you want it before you pour. At two to one the drink sits at the rich end, and Embury, as Difford’s Guide quotes him, found it rather sweet. For a drier glass, keep the vodka at 60ml and drop the Bénédictine to 20ml, or to 10ml for Embury’s own preference. One dash of Angostura is enough. It dries the finish; a second dash adds clove to a liqueur already full of spice. Stir for 20 to 30 seconds and serve it very cold, in a small glass. A sweet, strong drink tastes heavier as it warms, so it is best in the first ten minutes.
Behind the Gypsy Queen
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Vodka as a Frame
Most vodka drinks use the spirit to carry fruit or a mixer. This one uses it the way a Martinez uses gin, as the base of a stirred drink, except that vodka brings strength and very little flavour.
So the liqueur is heard on its own. Put gin in instead and you get a good drink, but juniper joins the herbs and the Bénédictine is no longer alone.
What Bénédictine Brings
Bénédictine is a French herbal liqueur at 40% ABV on its maker’s product page, made to a secret recipe of 27 herbs and spices, with honey and saffron playing a key role, its maker’s Alchemy page says.
It leads with honey and warm spice and ends on a herbal bitterness. At a third of the drink it is the whole flavour, and the dash of Angostura and the lemon oil are there to keep that sweetness in check.
Three Ratios Compared
The Gypsy Queen at three ratios of vodka to Bénédictine; the ratios are Embury’s as Difford’s Guide quotes him, and the units are our calculation at our working figure of 40% for vodka and 40% for Bénédictine on its maker’s product page
Two to one (ours, Embury’s original)
- Vodka
- 60ml
- Bénédictine
- 30ml
- Bitters
- A dash of Angostura
- Character
- Rich, honeyed
- UK units
- About 3.6
Three to one
- Vodka
- 60ml
- Bénédictine
- 20ml
- Bitters
- A dash of Angostura
- Character
- Drier, still sweet
- UK units
- About 3.2
Six to one (Embury’s preference)
- Vodka
- 60ml
- Bénédictine
- 10ml
- Bitters
- Orange bitters
- Character
- Dry, close to a vodka Martini
- UK units
- About 2.8
| Version | Vodka | Bénédictine | Bitters | Character | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Two to one (ours, Embury’s original) | 60ml | 30ml | A dash of Angostura | Rich, honeyed | About 3.6 |
| Three to one | 60ml | 20ml | A dash of Angostura | Drier, still sweet | About 3.2 |
| Six to one (Embury’s preference) | 60ml | 10ml | Orange bitters | Dry, close to a vodka Martini | About 2.8 |
How to Serve It
Stirred cold and strained into a small chilled glass, with the lemon twist expressed over the top. The oil gives the nose something bright before a drink that is otherwise honey and spice. It suits the end of an evening better than the start.
For Bénédictine with gin and sweet vermouth, make a Vancouver; for Scotch sweetened with Drambuie, a Rusty Nail.
Make it at home
The Spirit
VodkaVodka is spirit made from a farmed crop, usually grain or potatoes, distilled and refined so that the taste of that crop is deliberately reduced. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008 its minimum is 37.5% ABV and it may not be given a predominant flavour, which separates it from flavoured vodka and from gin; our recipes count it at 40%. In a mixed drink it adds strength and body while the other ingredients carry the taste.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Gypsy Queen?
Where does the Gypsy Queen come from?
Why is it so strong?
Is it too sweet?
Could I use gin instead?
What does Bénédictine taste like?
How strong is a Gypsy Queen?
Sources.
Correct as of 18 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Gypsy Queen” (secondary source: Wondrich’s find in the Russian Tea Room’s 1938 booklet; Embury’s 1948 “1 to 2 … rather sweet … 5 to 6 parts vodka to 1 of Benedictine”; his recipe stipulates one dash of orange bitters).
- Bénédictine, “Bénédictine D.O.M” (producer’s product page: 40% alc/vol; “a secret recipe of 27 herbs and spices”).
- Bénédictine, “Alchemy” (producer’s page: 27 plants and spices; honey and saffron play a key role).
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Vancouver
A Vancouver is 45ml of gin, 22.5ml of sweet vermouth, 7.5ml of Bénédictine and two dashes of orange bitters, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and served up in a chilled Nick & Nora under a twist of lemon. About 2.5 UK units. It is named for the city and linked by tradition to the Sylvia Hotel on English Bay, which opened in 1913 as an apartment block and, by the hotel’s own history page, opened Vancouver’s first cocktail lounge on 2 July 1954. The link is local tradition: Scout Magazine, an opinion piece, reports an undated Vancouver booklet, About Town, from between 1928 and 1942 that lists the drink with French vermouth, and no recipe we have read fixes when or where it was first mixed. Structurally it is a Hanky Panky with Bénédictine where the Fernet-Branca would be: the same gin and sweet vermouth, seasoned with honey and herbs instead of menthol and bitterness. A barspoon is enough, and the drink is gentler and rounder for it.
Rusty Nail
A Rusty Nail is 45ml Scotch whisky and 25ml Drambuie, stirred for 15 to 20 seconds over one large ice cube in a rocks glass and finished with a lemon twist, expressed and dropped in. About 2.8 UK units. The IBA gives the same measures, a little under two parts whisky to one of liqueur. Drambuie’s own site calls it a whisky liqueur, a blend of aged Scotch whisky, spices, herbs and heather honey, so the drink pairs a spirit with a sweeter version of itself. Difford’s Guide says David Wondrich has traced the pairing to 1937 and a drink called B.I.F., and the Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails says the name Rusty Nail, first recorded in 1961, appears to have originated in New York City. The ratio is the whole recipe. In our view more Drambuie makes a honeyed after-dinner drink; more whisky makes it drier and leaves the honey as an accent.
Black Russian
A Black Russian takes 50ml of vodka and 20ml of coffee liqueur, stirred in a rocks glass over a single large cube for 15 to 20 seconds and served without a garnish. The measures are the IBA’s. About 2.4 UK units. Difford’s Guide says Gustave Tops, a bartender at the Metropolitan Hotel in Brussels, created it in 1949 for Perle Mesta, then United States ambassador to Luxembourg. Barry Popik finds no contemporary documentation for that story and traces the drink in print to 1956. Its name joins the vodka to the dark colour of the coffee liqueur. At five parts vodka to two of liqueur, the coffee seasons the drink rather than sweetening it. Float cream on top and it becomes a White Russian.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 18 October 2026