Cocktail · Light & sessionable
Mimosa
Champagne and orange juice — the official beverage of long breakfasts.
How to order it: Equal parts, fresh-squeezed, no stirring needed. The bubbles do the work.
Flavor profile
The recipe
- 2½ oz chilled Champagne or Prosecco
- 2½ oz fresh orange juice
- Build gently in a flute
- No stirring required
- Optional orange twist
The story
The polite child of a rowdier parent. London's Buck's Club was serving the Buck's Fizz — champagne and orange juice, heavier on the champagne — by 1921; the Mimosa, traditionally credited to the Ritz Paris around 1925 and often to its famed bartender Frank Meier, evened the ratio and took its name from the yellow bloom of the mimosa flower. It is barely a recipe, which is precisely the point: a drink designed not to interrupt conversation, sunlight, or eggs Benedict. Adopted by hotel breakfasts, weddings, and every brunch invented since, it endures because it solved a delicate social problem — how to drink champagne before noon and call it festive rather than alarming.
Adjacent pours