Drinks

Death in the Afternoon cocktail

September 28, 2018 by Jennifer

With October first being Monday, that means it’s time to start thinking about Halloween. I know it may seem early, but I have plenty of friends who have already started decorating their houses. There are cobwebs, skeletons, ghosts, tombstones and of course plenty of death. It’s for that reason, I thought now would be the perfect time to introduce you to the classic Death in the Afternoon.

I’ve wanted to make this cocktail for a while now. But with Death in the name I knew I had to wait for the perfect time, and what better time is there than Halloween. While plenty of Halloween drinks are bright green or full of smoke, I prefer classics that don’t come with a gimic. Don’t get me wrong, those cocktails are fun to look at, but they usually require several ingredients and quite a bit of concocting. This drink has none of that. It’s just two ingredients that are mixed in a glass and served. But that’s not what I love most about this cocktail. What interested me is where the drink came from.

You know how much I love a good story and this one has a whopper. Unlike a lot of the drinks on this blog, this one wasn’t created by a bartender or brand ambassador. It was created instead by the classic author, Ernest Hemingway. Yes, that Ernest Hemingway. The author of such classics as The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms and of course Death in the Afternoon. No, you’re not seeing things. This cocktail was named after the author’s book because that was the decree.

Sterling North and Carl Kroch put together the book, So Red the Nose or Breath in the Afternoon, because of a random notion. “But even the next morning,” they said “it sounded feasible. Ask several of the literati to concoct original holiday drinks (and) name (them) after their books.” Within the tome are recipes from Christopher Morley, Margaret Ayer Barnes and Arthur Meeker, Jr. just to name a few. While some of the drinks don’t work, there are others, like Arnold Gingrich’s Esky’s Hot Spot, which are absolutely delicious. The Death in the Afternoon falls under the delicious category, which is probably why Hemingway said to drink “three to five of these slowly”.

Although I only plan to imbibe one or two of these concoctions, it’s not due to the drink’s taste. It’s actually the opposite. As I said the cocktail is delectable. Its simple mixture of absinthe and champagne tastes like a bubbly bite of licorice. Actually black licorice, which seems pretty apropos for the black holiday. So while the cocktail was originally meant for Christmas and New Year’s, I plan on serving it at Halloween. After all, there’s no rule that says champagne can only be enjoyed in December and January. As a matter of fact, I like to drink champagne any chance I get. If you’re like me and also like a good champagne cocktail, than you must try the Death in the Afternoon. It won’t kill you, but you may see a ghost or two.