King Charles' boozy pre-dinner ritual that 'just makes sense'

We’ve all got our little quirks, preferences and ways of doing things - and King Charles is human like the rest of us are, so we’re not surprised to hear about his boozy pre-dinner ritual.

• Count Tibor Kalnoky reveals that his pal King Charles like to have a martini before dinner every night.
• Tibor also reveals that the King sips on the cocktail from the same glass every night and brings his own when traveling abroad.
• In other royal news, Mike Tindall has revealed he and wife Zara had a wild connection from their first date. 

While appearing on Channel 4's documentary The Real Windsors: The Outspoken Heir, Tibor explained that, years ago, when then Prince Charles visited him in Viscri, Transylvania, Romania, where he still lives, he noticed that the royal ritually enjoyed a martini every night before dinner. 

"He likes a martini before dinner, that's for sure," the count said on the program.

Perhaps more surprising than his boozy cocktail of choice - which is a fairly popular one all over the world - is the fact that King Charles supposedly likes to drink it from a specific glass so, when abroad, he brings said cup along for the ride. Can you blame him? There’s just something about a perfectly concocted martini served in a cold glass that makes the gin and vermouth concoction absolutely delicious.

Speaking of gin: as fans of the King know, he's quite the fan of liquor. 

"He'll take booze on royal tours with him so that he has always got something he likes to drink," a source close to the royal family said on the record a while back. "It's quite strange behavior but, for Charles, it just makes sense!"

And, according to reports that surfaced just a few weeks ago, King Charles' final night as Prince of Wales included 'glass of fizz' and 'music in the tapestry room.' What a way to celebrate, right?

But, although the royal is now associated with the popular martini cocktail, we'd be remiss not to call out King Charles' devotion to gin and tonics - a preference that made headlines when Tina Brown released her biography The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor--the Truth and the Turmoil back in April of this year.

In the book, Tina chronicled how then Duchess Camilla put a stop to 'ridiculous' Charles' 'pompous' gin-and-tonic orders to his staff. The book also alleges that Camilla had to be 'coaxed' out of bed before her wedding to the eldest of the late Queen's children. 

"Camilla stops the pompous thing with Charles," a son of the Queen's friend told the royal author. "She won’t let him get away with telling his man to get his gin and tonic. She says: 'Oh, don’t be so ridiculous. Let me pour the gin and tonic.'"