Crown Royal XO Canadian Whisky

In 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth made history when they became the first reigning monarchs to visit Canada, arriving by boat and traveling the vast North American distance by train.

Upon hearing the historic news, a Canadian spirits entrepreneur set out to craft a whisky suited for the Royal Couple – an exceptionally generous gift fit for royalty. With perfection on his mind, he meticulously trialed more than 600 blends before outfitting the final product in a cut-glass decanter and regal purple bag with gold stitching. The whisky he presented to the King and Queen was an exquisitely smooth blend of roughly fifty whiskies which became known, fittingly, as Crown Royal.

The train carrying the monarchs was stocked with 10 cases of the royal blend and rumors of the unrivaled whisky fit for a King quickly spread. Crown Royal was released in the United States in the 1960s and has since become the top selling Canadian whisky.