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Shake the absinthe, grapefruit juice, and elderflower liqueur with ice, strain into a flute with 2-3 oz dry sparkling wine, and garnish with a grapefruit twist.

Notes

I have since done this with the elderflower split 50:50 with honey syrup (1:1) with good effect.

History

At work, the general manager of Menton (our sister restaurant) asked if there was a secret to making the Death in the Afternoon a good drink. I replied that there really was not; basically, either you enjoy the combination or you do not. Then that evening at Drink, a guest asked for an absinthe cocktail. I then recalled how well absinthe paired with pink grapefruit juice via one of the drinks at the Kübler Absinthe release party here in Boston pushed on me by woodland nymph characters circa October 2007. With that, I added elderflower liqueur to take the mix in a Bohemian direction, and cava to circle back to the conversation earlier that afternoon. For a name, I dubbed this one The End of Something after a short story by Ernest Hemingway as a nod to the Death in the Afternoon inspiration.

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Recent Discussion

Re Hello Brooklyn 2.0, 2 days ago Shawn C commented:
Is this the actual recipe circa 2019? Or is it a guestimate of it (e.g. likely altered rather than authentic?) I haven't tried it, but at first read it looks unbalanced (sweet) as an equal parts. The undated note above says that the menu listed rye, cardamaro, dry vermouth, chartreuse verte; and the 2023 menu (online) says "Rye, Amaro, Dry Vermouth, Chartreuse Verte." So the establishment might be varying the amaro used; but I do wonder if the original used green rather than yellow chartreuse.
Re Torres del Paine, 2 days ago Mixin In Ansley commented:
Needs .25 oz simple to sweeten but also round the cocktail
Re Hello Brooklyn 2.0, 3 days ago Artur B commented:
Too sweet. Less amaro and chartreuse I think.
Re Lacrimosa, 4 days ago Shawn C commented:
Good, but overly stout at nearly 81 proof before ice dilution. Next time I will try it w/1.5 oz of Rittenhouse to tame the heat a little and to get the total alcohol content below 1.2 oz.
Re Williwaw Swizzle, 1 week ago Thierry Vandevelde commented:
Candy like sweet but pleasantly so. The gin is a little bit lost.