Death in the Afternoon - Hemingway's Cocktail
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The "Death in the Afternoon" cocktail comes from the book "So Red the Nose or Breath in the Afternoon". The drink goes back to the writer Ernest Hemingway and consists of exactly two ingredients: Absinthe and champagne.
The cocktail is considered one of Hemingway's favourite drinks and has bullfighting as its background. If you look at the recipe, however, you have to ask yourself whose death is being discussed here. That of the dying bull or that of the drinker?
The recipe for "Death in the Afternoon" may seem minimalist, since only absinthe and champagne are mentioned as ingredients for the drink, but it has a lot going for it. Hemingway's suggested drink is 1 jigger of absinthe, which is infused with champagne until the cocktail has a shimmering milkiness. It is best to enjoy 3-5 cocktails of this slowly.
Death in the Afternoon, however, should rather be drunk in a toned-down version, i.e. with no more than half a jigger of absinthe and, if possible, not already in the afternoon, lest the name of the cocktail come true after all.
