Ernie is at it again. Hemingway was possibly an even better boozer than he was a great writer. Here he managed to combined the two. Death in the Afternoon is both the title of his1932 book about Spanish bullfighting and this lethal concoction of his own devising, his contribution to ‘So Red the Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon,’ a 1935 cocktail book featuring recipes by celebrity authors of the day.
In the original recipe he claimed that it was invented “by the author and three officers of H.M.S. Danae after having spent seven hours overboard trying to get Capt. Bra Saunders’ fishing boat off a bank where she had gone with us in a N.W. gale.” but then he was always one for a good yarn.
He instructs:
“Pour one jigger of absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”
The jigger was probably 30 ml, the glass, a coupe. Nowadays it is also known simply as ‘The Hemingway.’ Some modern creations substitute the absinthe with Pernod and, god forbid, add a sugar cube. This is sacrilege. Make it the way the maestro laid down or sail on. Captain’s orders.