ETHANOL

DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON

Ernest Hemingway, ~1935.

FLUTE
ETHANOL 28 G196 KCAL FROM ETHANOL6.15 OZ SERVED

SPEC

1 oz · 30 mlABSINTHE60 %
5 oz · 150 mlCHAMPAGNE12 %

1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.

METHOD

  1. 01POUR ABSINTHE INTO A FLUTE
  2. 02SLOWLY TOP WITH ICED CHAMPAGNE UNTIL THE DRINK ACHIEVES PROPER OPALESCENT MILKINESS (HEMINGWAY'S WORDS)
  3. 03NO GARNISH

1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.

STRENGTH // WORKED

Pre-batch1 oz mixed with ice, 0.6 oz of it pure alcohol
MeltStirred: +15 % of the pre-batch, +0.15 oz of water
ToppedPoured after the melt, kept whole: champagne 5 oz, +0.6 oz of alcohol
Served1 + 0.15 + 5 = 6.15 oz in the glass, 1.2 oz of it alcohol
Strength1.2 ÷ 6.15 = 19.5 % ABV as served
Ethanol1.2 oz × 29.57 ml × 0.789 g/ml = 28 g · about 196 kcal from the alcohol alone

IN THE GLASS

α-THUJONE

FROM ABSINTHE · the wormwood compound, mythologized

Formula
C₁₀H₁₆O
Mass
152.24 g/mol
IUPAC
(1S,4R,5R)-4-methyl-1-propan-2-ylbicyclo[3.1.0]hexan-3-one

The wormwood compound that got absinthe banned for ninety years over a panic that turned out to be mostly wrong. A GABA-A antagonist at high doses, but the doses in actual absinthe, both modern and historical, were always too low to cause the hallucinations the lore promised. Bans lifted between 1988 and 2007 once the chemistry was finally measured properly.

PUBCHEM ↗

ALSO IN Sazerac · Corpse Reviver #2 · French 75 · Zombie · Remember the Maine · Tuxedo No. 2 · Tuxedo No. 3

TARTARIC ACID

FROM CHAMPAGNE · the dominant grape acid

Formula
C₄H₆O₆
Mass
150.09 g/mol
IUPAC
(2R,3R)-2,3-dihydroxybutanedioic acid

The dominant acid in grapes and the reason wine tastes sharp instead of flat. Forms crystals ("wine diamonds") when bottled wine gets cold; harmless, sometimes filtered out, sometimes left in as a mark of authenticity. Without acid, wine is sugar water.

PUBCHEM ↗

ALSO IN Mimosa · Champagne Cocktail · French 76 · Negroni Sbagliato · Kir Royale · Kir · Black Velvet · Old Cuban

CHEMISTRY

Absinthe and Champagne. Thujone from wormwood rides along; the anethole of anise and fennel, held in solution by ethanol, louches when cold Champagne dilutes the absinthe past its solubility threshold. The milky opacity is the indicator. It is Hemingway's recipe, for which three to five in an evening was the suggested dose.

PROVENANCE

Hemingway contributed the recipe to a 1935 collection titled 'So Red the Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon', a cocktail anthology of recipes from celebrated writers. His full instruction: '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.' The name is a pun on Hemingway's 1932 bullfighting treatise 'Death in the Afternoon.'

WINE & SPARKLING // NEARBY

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