Headed for a Hearse

The Drink

Jonathan Latimer…states that his Headed for a Hearse Cocktail is quite as deadly as it sounds.

The equipment necessary are a water tumbler, some crushed ice, and a stout heart; also Pernod and some very old Bourbon. Place the ice in a strainer and pour into the tumbler two jiggers of the Bourbon. Similarly drip through the ice an equal quantity of Pernod. Add a quarter of a tumbler of cold water.

– From So Red the Nose

And here we have another authorly drink in which absinthe is the first and strongest flavor. Although maybe that won’t be true if you actually use “very old brandy” as instructed, but for me, very old = very expensive. I guess my brandy counts as old to you if you’re eight.

Asylum

The Drink

Members of the So Red the Nose Club should read Asylum to discover what lies in store for incautious imbibers of Gin and Pernod.

1 PART GIN
1 PART PERNOD
DASH OF GRENADINE

Pour Over Large Lumps of Ice
Do Not Shake

– From So Red the Nose

It’s pretty ironic to have an alcoholic drink based on a book about rehab. Or is it actually the opposite of irony, since a drunk is surely a cocktail expert? #thingsenglishteachersshouldknow

Swiss Family Manhattan

The Drink

Thirteen hundred of these cocktails were said to have disappeared at the coming-out party for Swiss Family Manhattan on the eighty-fifth floor of the Empire State Building. 

2/3 RYE WHISKY
1/3 ITALIAN VERMOUTH
1 DASH ABSINTHE

Stir and Serve Excessively Cold

– From So Red the Nose

This is the first So Red the Nose drink that I just could not finish. This project may be developing my taste for hard liquor, but not to the point where I can happily drink straight rye whiskey with no sweetener. I spent the whole time reading this book counting down the minutes until I could pour the foul thing down the drain.

Death in the Afternoon

The Drink

It takes a man with hair on his chest to drink five Absinthe and Champagne Cocktails and still handle the English language in the Hemingway fashion…After six of these cocktails The Sun Also Rises.

Pour 1 jigger of absinthe into a champagne glass. Add iced champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink 3 to 5 of these slowly.

– from So Red the Nose

Did I say that The Canary Case cocktails were strong? What a naïve drinker I was in those days. Sorry Van Dine, but Hemingway can outdrink you in this century just as well as the last. Shamefully, I had to skip the “3 to 5” instruction, unless he meant these directions to take place over a week’s time.