Mimosa

The mimosa. A light, fizzy, refreshing favourite with the power to liven up any family get-together, make your second cousin's baby shower tolerable, and give us all a reason to rise for an early morning brunch on any given Sunday. I for one, have long been obsessed with the Mimosa.

The history of the classic cocktail is a much-disputed mystery, but there is little doubt that the mimosa is a variation of the ever-loved Buck's Fizz cocktail, invented in 1921 at Buck's Club in London. The lone difference between the two drinks is ratio. 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. Despite a variation in quantities, both were created with the same goal in mind: to have an excuse to start drinking before lunchtime.

Years after Buck's Fizz a bartender named Frank Meier at the Ritz Hotel in Paris created a slightly more diluted version of the cocktail. His adaptation was made with equal measures of both ingredients, and although he never took credit for coining what we consider the modern-day mimosa, we can thank him for recording the recipe in his book "The Artistry of Mixing Drinks".

1 parts champagne or sparkling wine
1 part orange juice, freshly squeezed

Garnish:
lemon slice or mint leaves

Pour orange juice into a flute glass and top with champagne.

Makes 1 cocktail.