Mimosa Recipe
Two ingredients, one coupe, and brunch is handled. A proper Mimosa balances crisp sparkling wine against fresh-squeezed orange juice, poured cold and served colder, the simplest cocktail that rewards good bottles and a light hand.
Ingredients
- 4 ozchampagne or dry sparkling wine, well chilled
- 2 ozfresh-squeezed orange juice, chilled
- 0.25 ozorange liqueur (optional, for depth)
Garnish
- Orange peel twist
- Thin orange wheel (optional)
Equipment: Champagne flute or coupe, jigger, bar spoon, citrus juicer, sharp knife
Method
- Chill the flute in the freezer for a few minutes, or fill it with ice water and dump it just before building.
- Add the optional orange liqueur to the bottom of the flute.
- Pour the chilled orange juice into the flute.
- Tilt the glass and slowly top with the chilled sparkling wine, pouring down the side to keep the bubbles lively.
- Gently stir once with a bar spoon to integrate, then garnish with an orange twist and serve immediately.
About the Mimosa
The Mimosa is a mid-century invention with a murky birth story, but the most cited origin lands in 1925 at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, where bartender Frank Meier mixed sparkling wine and orange juice for a brunch crowd. The drink took its name from the yellow-orange mimosa flower, and it spread through American brunch culture in the decades that followed. The formula never changed because it does not need to: wine, juice, cold glass.
The quality of a Mimosa lives entirely in the bottle and the fruit. Use a dry sparkling wine, Cava, Cremant, Prosecco, or true Champagne, and skip anything sweet or heavily oaked, because the orange juice already carries sugar. Squeeze the juice the same morning and chill it; warm juice flattens the carbonation on contact. Pour the wine last and slowly, and stir only once, so the bubbles survive the trip to the table.
- Keep both the wine and the juice in the fridge until the moment you pour; a cold Mimosa holds its bubbles far longer.
- Use a dry brut sparkling wine, not a sweet or extra-dry bottling, since the orange juice supplies all the sugar the drink needs.
- A quarter ounce of orange liqueur adds body and a bitter edge that keeps the drink from tasting like breakfast juice.
- For a crowd, set out chilled bottles and a pitcher of fresh juice and let guests build their own so every glass stays fizzy.
Get the bottles delivered
Order online for same-day or next-day Long Island delivery, free curbside pickup in Commack, or nationwide shipping where it is legal. You must be 21 or older.
