A Hemingway, Hemingway Champagne or Death In The Afternoon is a cocktail comprised of Absinthe, Champagne and high expectations.

Absinthe became legal in the US about a decade ago and since I’m a big girl now, and probably read an article about it reminding me of both of those facts, I’ve had it on my “to do list” for a little while. Last night was the night.

The place I visited doesn’t do Absinthe cocktails so I detailed to the bartender the recipe of my choice and voila!  I’d heard that it had a distinctive flavor, I hadn’t heard that it was licorice, which I despise. What the hell was Hemingway thinking??

Hemingway was a novelist and a journo, among other things, according to my old and reliable friend Wiki: “never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.” Right on, Frankenstein. (Do ya like what I did there, @dfa1979?)

Anyhoo, Hemingway had a shit ton of unfortunate and unfortunately common experiences for the time, and married four times, to boot. He also had taste in his asshole because Absinthe is more than just an acquired taste. Blech. I had hoped and expected some sort of “off with the fairies” experience but besides a little bit of head-swim, nothing, nada. Perhaps I had too little – but I couldn’t have had any more because it was awful and I almost retched into my tiny, adorable, traditional champagne glass once or twice. Again, blech.

I’m going to try and find some other celeb or pseudo-celeb to model my Absinthe over and hope for better luck next time.