From tall tales to tall tipples. It could be easily said, and decidedly has been by many, that Ernest “Papa” Hemingway was as well known for his writing as much as his imbibing. And like fellow literary lion Ian Fleming of 007 fame, Hemingway often wrote original cocktail recipes into his pros (see number two and five on our list).
So renowned for his Lost Generation Parisian moveable feast meanderings and carousing that the saloon at Hôtel Ritz Paris is aptly named the Hemingway Bar, which the author-hunter-fisherman claimed to have “liberated” from the Germans.
The Ritz Hotel bar rescue by the Hemingway on August 25, 1944—the very day the Nazis occupiers surrendered the French Capital—is the stuff of legend. So the story goes, Hemingway, backed by a group of Resistance fighters, burst into the hotel and announced that he had come to personally liberate it and its bar, which had been requisitioned by the Nazis in June 1940. Upon entering the fabled establishment Papa was informed by the hotel’s managing director Claude Auzello that the Germans had fled well before his arrival. Hemingway nonetheless remained, and is said he ran up a tab for 51 dry Martinis—one presumes for himself, as well as his men.
Ernest Hemingway and Giuseppe Cipriani, Venice 1948. © Archivio Camera photo Epoche / Bridgeman Images.
To learn the entirely of Hemingway’s drinking habits and related anecdotes I highly recommend Philip Greene’s To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion. Greene notes in his book, that Hemingway “thought globally… drank locally,” which given the regular haunts he frequented in his various habitual ports of call—El Floridita in Havana, Harry's Bar in Venice, Sloppy Joe’s in Key West, Florida— that makes good sound sense. (I’ve had the good fortune to imbibe at all three, even if Floridita and Joes are long in the tooth tourist traps.) To make do until you pick-up Greene’s volume, here are five of Hemingway’s favored inebriants.
Lastly, Papa wasn’t much of cigar partaker (there’s only one known image of him lighting-up, in it he looks less than thrilled; he did periodically puff on a pipe), which might explain as to why none of these pair particularly well with a puro, other than his preferred martini preparation—a cigar and a martini, as classic as it gets, much like Hemingway’s literary and libation oeuvre.
Hemingway Special Daiquiri (a.k.a. Papa Doble; Hemingway Special)
- 2 ounces white rum
- ½ fl. oz. maraschino liqueur
- ¾ fl. oz. lime juice, freshly squeezed
- ½ fl. oz. grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed
- ½ fl. oz. simple syrup (optional)
- Garnish: lime wheel
Created by Constantino Ribalaigua Vert the legendary bartender at El Floridita. Hemingway did not opt for the added sugar, but most do as it’s rather tart without.
Hemingway Champagne (aka Death in the Afternoon)
- 1 ½ fl. oz. (1 jigger) absinthe
- 4 ½ fl. oz. chilled Champagne
- ½ fl. oz. simple syrup (optional)
Published in 1932, the non-fiction novel Death in the Afternoon offers in rather exacting detail the recipe for this now classic cocktail. It reads: “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.”
Bellini
- 2 fl. oz. white peach puree
- 6 fl. oz. chilled Prosecco
Created in 1948 at the historic Harry's Bar in Venice (by Giuseppe Cipriani who opened his barroom doors in 17 years prior), this sweet and viscos concoction was Hemingway’s cocktail of choice when in the Bride of the Sea. Now served at all Cipriani establishments worldwide; and sold by the bottle in gourmet markets.
Hemingway Martini
- 1 ¾ fl. oz. London dry gin (Hemingway liked Gordon’s)
- 1 teaspoon dry vermouth
- Cocktail onion, frozen
- Served in frozen martini glass or coupe
Everyone likes their martini prepared just slightly so. And while its said Hemingway liked vermouth, he didn’t care for it in his martinis, which one could only call, “extra-dry” with a teaspoon, barely enough for a rinse, of the botanical infused fortified wine.
Green Isaac’s Special
- 2 fl. oz. London dry gin
- 4 fl. oz. unsweetened coconut water (not milk)
- 1 fl. oz. lime juice, freshly squeezed
- 2 to 4 dashes Angostura bitters
The Green Isaac’s Special cocktail first appears in Papa’s first posthumously published novel Islands in the Stream, he wrote: “Where Thomas Hudson lay on the mattress his head was in the shade cast by the platform at the forward end of the flying bridge where the controls were and when Eddy came aft with the tall cold drink made of gin, lime juice, green coconut water and chipped ice with just enough Angostura bitters to give it a rusty, rose color, he held the drink in the shadow so the ice would not melt while he looked out over the sea.”
