January 8, 2007

Death in the Afternoon

We've heard about a drink called the Hemingway cocktail, and we knew it involved a combination of absinthe and champagne. It seemed like a high end way to kill an afternoon, but there were two things we didn't think about (or know). One thing we didn't think about was how champagne's bubbles might distribute the absinthe buzz. Two was the fact that another name for the drink was the Death in the Afternoon (named after a bookby Papa himself).

We haven't touched absinthe in a while, ever since a fateful night last march, but after reading about this drink in the NYT, it made us rethink the drink.You need a free subscription to read the article, but it's interesting, at least if you want to read about why absinthe goes milky when you add another liquid, and are curious about the effect of the bubbles. We're interested in both.

READERS of Ernest Hemingway know “Death in the Afternoon” as a book about bullfighting. But to drinkers with a taste for obscure booze, it is also a cocktail that Hemingway contributed to a 1935 collection of celebrity recipes. His directions: “Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”

New York Times - Trying to Clear Absinthe’s Reputation [subscription]

Read More in: Absinthe | Cocktail Recipes

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