The Brunch Mimosa

An occasion so popular it feels like just another name for Sunday. Evoking images of breakfast foods, beguiling stories of Saturday night shenanigans, and of course mimosas (almost always of the bottomless variety).

So, let’s give credit where credit is due and dive into that most beloved morning cocktail… the mimosa.

A light and refreshing brunch staple, capable of reviving even the most ailing of revelers and giving us all a perfectly good reason to get up and out of the house on any given Sunday. 

This cocktail is thought to be named after the bright yellow blossoms of the mimosa tree.

Not so humble beginnings.

The origin of the modern day mimosa can be found in cheery old England. The drink is almost certainly a variation of the ever-loved “Buck’s Fizz” cocktail, which was invented in 1921 at the Buck’s Club in London. Actually just about the only difference between the two drinks is their ratio of bubbles to juice.

       The Buck's Club Bar - London, England

A traditional mimosa is served with equal parts sparkling wine and orange juice, whereas a typical Buck’s Fizz has twice as much champagne as juice. So, turns out, that wine heavy “mimosa” enjoyed by many a brunch time babe, is technically a different morning cocktail all together and we never even knew it! To be fair, both are a pour-fectly good excuse to start drinking before noon. 

Bonjour Brunch!

Years after Buck's Fizz made its sparkling debut, a bartender named Frank Meier, at the Ritz Hotel in Paris created a slightly more diluted version of the cocktail, with equal parts orange juice and champagne. An extraordinary man, Meier was a bartender to such literary elite as Hemmingway & F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is also widely believed that he operated as a kind of mailbox, and passed messages to the resistance in occupied Paris during WW2.

Although Mr. Meier never actually took credit for coining what we consider the modern-day mimosa, he was kind enough to record the recipe in his book The Artistry of Mixing Drinks (1934). Which covers everything from wines and cocktails, to horse racing and how to live. Read more about this legendary mixologist and the Hotel Ritz here.

New twist on an old favorite.

Mix things up by swapping half of your regular OJ with pineapple juice and adding a splash of grenadine to the bottom of the glass. Top it off with a maraschino cherry and voila! You've got a blushing mimosa.