Absinthe Shaken

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway, 1940

1½ oz. absinthe

½ oz. simple syrup

2 oz. water

1 sprig of fresh mint, for garnish

Place the absinthe, syrup, and water in a cocktail shaker, fill it two-thirds of the way with ice, and shake until chilled.

Fill a cocktail glass with crushed ice and strain the cocktail over it. Garnish with the sprig of mint and enjoy.

“It smells of anis but it is bitter as gall,” he said. “It is better to be sick than have that medicine.”

“That’s the wormwood,” Robert Jordan told him. “In this, the real absinthe, there is wormwood. It’s supposed to rot your brain out but I don’t believe it. It only changes the ideas. You should pour water into it very slowly, a few drops at a time.”

Hemingway’s classic is set during the Spanish Civil War, an event he knew only too well, given that he was in Spain, on the ground, reporting on events. The story follows the tragic tale of American Robert Jordan, who fights against the Fascists. His specialty is blowing up bridges, but his days are numbered.

In the scene above, Jordan is offering absinthe up as a medicine, and claiming that it can cure anything that ails someone. Absinthe was, of course, a seemingly dangerous and forbidden drink for decades (it was banned in the United States until 2007), over fears that it could drive drinkers mad (which is not true, happy to say!). As for being medicinal? Well, in a pinch, it probably couldn’t hurt.