DOTD For Thursday, October 16, 2025

Don't Lose Your Head Over This Drink…

Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is a Guillotine Cocktail, the perfect drink to celebrate Marie Antoinette losing her head, literally, on this date, October 16, 1793.

For those who may be unaware, Marie Antoinette was the last queen of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. To say she was “entitled” is an extreme understatement.

She entered the world as Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna, and was born into privilege as a daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria. When she was 14, she was married to Louis-Auguste, who was the upcoming heir to the French throne. Four years later she became queen when her husband ascended to the throne & became King Louis XVI.

As queen, she became known for her extravagance, which was in sharp contrast to her husband. While King Louis was thrifty, indecisive, and preferred to spend his time alone, Marie was extravagant and craved the social whirlwind of a court of royalty. Louis was known to go to bed around 11 PM, about the time of evening Marie was just getting the party started. She bought diamond jewelry that cost as much as a Paris mansion, gambled wildly, and sported towering bouffant hairdos.

Kirsten Dunst, in 2006’s “Marie Antoinette” - Sony Pictures/Everett Collection

All of this highly visible self-indulgence was happening at a time when the economy of most French people was dodgy at best. Yet the royal couple had no clue, isolated in the luxury of their Palace at Versailles, completely oblivious & disconnected from the plight of their subjects. Failed harvests had made the price of grain skyrocket, mobs were rioting in the streets, and taxes were crushing - all the pieces needed for a major political revolution.

When the French Revolution began in 1789, Louis XVI and Marie Antionette were not the most popular folks, in part due to that arrogance, extravagance, and cluelessness. It’s during this time that the most famous quote attributed to Marie Antoinette was - for most of 200 years - thought to have been uttered: “Let them eat cake.”

The mythical story is that late one afternoon, as the riots grew ever-larger in the streets of Paris, one of Marie’s handmaidens came to her to beg for help, telling the queen that her starving peasant subjects had no bread. The queen’s response, according to the myth, was “Let them eat cake” a reply of complete cluelessness, because cake was much more expensive than bread at that time.

Historical evidence today however suggests she never said it. The original French quote is believed to be “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” (”Let them eat brioche”), and the entire story is now thought to be propaganda used to portray Marie Antoinette and the French aristocracy as indifferent to the suffering of the poor during the French Revolution.

Back in the real world, the French monarchy was ended by a national vote of th French people on September 21, 1792, when they established the First French Republic. King Louis was relieved of his head shortly thereafter, at the beginning of 1793. On October 14 of that year Marie was put on trial by the Revolutionary Tribunal. Two days later it was her turn to face the cutting edge of justice by guillotine, at one time dubbed the “National Razor” of France.

While the phrase attributed to Marie Antoinette may be a myth, the point of the story remains valid: For those in positions of political power, never get too disconnected from the people, or you may end up with your head disconnected from your body. It’s a lesson too many in politics today, around the world, and even here in the U.S., still seem not to have learned.

On that note, it’s time for a drink

Ingredients

Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink: