Ernest Hemingway. Nobel-prize winning writer, traveler, veteran, and (most importantly for us) world renowned drinker. Born just before the turn of the 20th century, he is an American icon and has influenced literature, politics, and the culture of drinking as we know it. We thought we would take the time to introduce you to a man that you just might owe your favorite drink to, and perhaps you don’t even know it. With no further ado, we give you Hemingway: his life (briefly) in booze.

Our segment of the story doesn’t really start until Hemingway returns from his brief tour of duty in WWI, where he was an ambulance driver on the Italian front. There less than a year, he sustained a serious injury, forcing him to return home to Oak Park, Illinois. After a summer of recuperating, he moved to Toronto and got a job at the Toronto Star Weekly as a freelance writer. Soon after, he met and married his first wife, Hadley, and moved to Paris, accepting a job as a foreign correspondent. Paris, at the time, was chock full of American expatriate writers, and he quickly fell into the company of such icons as F.Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound. This group of writers became representatives of the “Lost Generation”, a collection of disillusioned literary giants, and Hemingway is credited with popularizing the term, as he used it in The Sun also Rises (his first novel). He became a voice of his generation, and generations to come of disenfranchised youth.

Paris would be where we start to find young Ernest’s drinking haunts. The most well known would be Harry’s New York Bar, where he and Fitzgerald would sit and discuss, well, probably a bit of everything. In addition to being one of the most famous bars in the world, with famous clientele, Harry’s is also the birthplace of the Sidecar, the Monkey Gland, and the White Lady cocktails. The writer has not discovered his beloved rum yet, so we can only assume he was still drinking brandy. Hemingway used the name Harry’s for a bar in one of his short stories, and now several “Harry’s” bars exist all over the world, some connected… some not, notable ones being in Venice and San Francisco. Which came first? We let you decide.

A divorce, a marriage, two kids, and two books and later, Hemingway ended up splitting his time in Wyoming (he was an avid outdoorsman) and Key West. He had purchased a boat, named it Pilar and sailed her around during the winter months, writing and drinking in places like Sloppy Joes (which for 30 years has held a Hemingway look-alike contest every year) while sipping Daquiri’s and chatting with his buddy Waldo Pierce. He also wrote Death in the Afternoon during this time, traveling to France and Spain extensively to gather material. It’s no small wonder, then, that we have a cocktail with the same name created by the man himself, made up of absinthe and champagne, that he reportedly whipped up after a bout of sea-sickness. We admire the strength of his liver, as he used to drink these four or five in a sitting. Yikes.

Hemingway and his third wife (we are seeing a trend here) ended up in Cuba after a short stint in Spain before WWII. He may have gleaned an appreciation for bullfighting and the Festival of San Fermin during his stay in Espana, but Cuba is where he found his drink. Cuba and the Carribean are where his legacy and his penchant for rum are rooted. It is also the birthplace of Mojitos, and although at the moment we aren’t able to see if it’s true, it is rumored that “My mojito at the Bodeguita” was written in Spanish on the wall in La Bodeguita del Medio by the man himself, and can still be seen today. The mojito is a cousin of the Mint Julep, the favorite cocktail of his contemporary William Faulkner (more on him next time). Hemingway aficionados say the man didn’t favor sweet drinks, so the mojito probably wasn’t his poison of choice, but legend has a way of prevailing over fact, and the mojito will always be connected to the writer, and we can partially credit him with it’s popularity.

That brings us to the Hemingway Daiquiri, also called the Papa Doble, which was created in his honor at La Floridita, in Havana. La Floridita is said to be the favorite haunt of Hemingway, where he would spend hours at the bar sipping Daiquiri’s. As to the cocktail that wears his name, the story goes as such: one fine afternoon, Constante Ribailagua, the owner of La Floridita, served Hemingway one of the regular Daiquiri’s that the bar was famous for. He took a sip, turned to Constante and said “That’s good, but I prefer it without the sugar and double the rum.” Well said. Ernest did get some writing done in between cocktails: he won the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea, which (for those of you that haven’t read it) is based on the struggle of a Cuban fisherman and was written in 8 weeks. A lesson for you non-drinkers out there: see what the sauce can do?

Sadly, our story ends there. Hemingway moved from Cuba in 1959 (forced to leave over four thousand books, as well as art, manuscripts, and a good daiquiri behind) and spent his final years in Idaho. Idaho, which as far as we know, has no cocktail culture, famous bars, or perhaps even rum. Yes, liquor was one of the contributing factors to deteriorating health (moderation, people!) but it was not ultimately his demise. In any case, he remains one of the most emulated and famous American writers to date, and we as cocktail geeks have so much to thank him for. Here’s to you, Mr. Hemingway. May you have a sunny day, a bit of sand, and a good bartender to keep you company wherever you may be.

“Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.”

-Ernest Hemingway

Papa Doble (the Hemingway Daiquiri)
3 oz light rum
¾ oz grapefruit juice
¾ oz maraschino liqueur
1 oz fresh lime juice
¼ oz simple syrup (optional: Hemingway would disapprove)

Shake all ingredients over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.

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