Death in the Afternoon

The earliest known recipe for this bracing little number appears in the magnificently named 1935 cocktail book, "So Red the Nose, or — Breath in the Afternoon," to which many famous authors of the day contributed recipes. This one came from Ernest Hemingway, who explained: “This was arrived at 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.” Even under less dramatic circumstances, it’s a drink that packs a punch. Pastis is often substituted for the absinthe, but if you want to be as Hemingwayesque as possible, stick to the original specs.