Death in the Afternoon
Absinthe and champagne, and nothing to soften either of them.
Photo: Mort dans l'après-midi 000 by Arnaud 25 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · All credits
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 6 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 180 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 180 ml line. Absinthe - One measure, and measure it - absinthe is not a thing to guess at
- 720 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 720 ml line. Champagne - Very cold, and a dry one; cava or a good prosecco will do the job
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Absinthe in a chilled glass, champagne on top, and watch it turn cloudy.
Method
Pitcher (6 drinks)Pitcher (6 drinks) - about 900 ml of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Chill the champagne thoroughly, and the glass with it.
- Pour the absinthe into the glass.
- Top up slowly with the champagne - four parts to one.
- Do not stir it. Let it find its own pale, opalescent colour, which is what the drink is for.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Death in the Afternoon
Ernest Hemingway wrote the recipe down himself, in a 1935 book of celebrity cocktail instructions: "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." He named it after his own book on bullfighting, and the advice about drinking three to five of them is the most Hemingway sentence ever written about anything.
Getting it right
The charm of this drink is entirely visual as well as alcoholic: the absinthe louches in the champagne exactly as it does in cold water, going from clear green to a cloudy, pale milk-tinged gold, and it is worth pouring slowly enough to watch. Four parts champagne to one part absinthe is the proportion most people settle on - Hemingway's "until it attains the proper" leaves you at the mercy of your own judgement, which with absinthe is a bold place to be. Keep both bottles cold, because the drink is mostly wine with no ice to save it.
Tasting notes
Dry bubbles first, then anise, fennel and a cool herbal hush underneath. Sophisticated, strange and much stronger than champagne has any right to be.
It is an excellent aperitif, and one of the very few drinks here that is better in the afternoon than in the evening.