How to Drink Like Earnest Hemingway

I mentioned yesterday that Hemingway's Islands in the Stream is full of alcohol-soaked moments.  While there are a lot of food references as well, the beverage descriptions are much more appealing.  Which would you choose: a peanut butter and onion sandwich or one of these:

Thomas Hudson took a sip of the ice-cold drink that tasted of the fresh green lime juice mixed with the tasteless coconut water that was still so much more full-bodies than any charged water, strong with the real Gordon's gin that made it alive to his tongue and rewarding to swallow, and all of it tautened by the bitters that gave it color.  It tastes as good as a drawing sail feel, he thought.  It is a hell of a good drink.

One character late in the book calls this drink a Tomini.  The Hemingway Cookbook agrees.  To Have and Have Another: The Hemingway Companion (what a perfect name!) calls their versions of the drink the Green Isaac's Special and the Hemingway Tom Collins.


HOW TO MAKE A HEMINGWAY TOMINI:

2 ounces of gin
juice of one lime
dash or two of Angostura bitters
about 4 ounces of coconut water*

Mix the ingredients with ice and serve.

*Coconut water is the liquid inside a fresh coconut, not coconut milk.  It is sometimes available in cans or bottles.  If you buy it that way, make sure it is not sweetened.