I Just Learned the “Right” Way to Make a Mimosa

Unfortunately, the answer isn't just "measure with your heart."

Mimosas are a perfect illustration of the duality of American brunch-goers: sometimes refined and effervescent, other times sloppy and bottomless. And it turns out the mimosa’s historical origins might not actually be far off from today’s bottomless brunch culture.

Like most cocktails, the mimosa’s history is storied and disputed. But the simple combination of Champagne and orange juice were certainly a bar favorite in Roaring Twenties Europe, from London to the South of France. The mimosa’s rise to popularity in 1920s Paris is often credited to Frank Meier, bartender at the Ritz Parisl—a frequent haunt for heavy-drinking literati like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Meier’s Mimosa recipe, which he eventually printed in a 1936 limited-edition cocktail book, The Artistry of Mixing Drinks, is on the boozier side: It calls for “the juice of one-half orange” squeezed into a large wine glass, which is then filled with Champagne. (This was a departure from earlier, milder recipes, like the one in bartender Dominique Migliorero’s 1925 cocktail guide L’art du Shaker, which calls for a ratio of equal parts Champagne and orange juice.)

“The drink’s simplicity struck a chord with Parisian society,” writes David Wondrich in The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails. But how did it become America’s brunch drink of choice?

Here’s a guess: Around the same time the mimosa was taking off in Europe, America was undergoing another food craze across the pond: oranges. Scientists had discovered vitamin C just a decade before, and now they’d found that oranges were an excellent source of it. Starting in the late 1920s, growers in Florida and California launched campaigns promoting orange juice as a health elixir—and a great way to start the day.

“Orange juice sales skyrocketed,” writes Andrew F. Smith in the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, “as Americans became convinced that their health depended on drinking a glass of orange juice every day.” By the early 1950s, orange juice from concentrate accounted for 20 percent of the American frozen food market. As orange juice became mid-century America’s go-to breakfast drink of choice, it stands to reason that the mimosa would follow suit as its boozy brunch counterpart.

These days, most mixologists recommend a 50/50 split of chilled Champagne to OJ, though you can adjust to your personal taste. No need to buy an expensive bottle of bubbly—it’ll get lost in the orange juice. A $15 brut will do just fine. (If you’re going to splurge on a batch of mimosas, spring for fresh-squeezed orange juice instead!) You might add a sprig of mint or an orange twist for garnish—or, if you’re in the mood to double down on the orange fun, a splash of Cointreau.

Read the original article on All Recipes.