Mimosa, the yellow-globose shrub that became the symbol of International Women’s Day in Russia, and also gave its name to canned fish and egg yolk salad, is actually Silver Acacia. But the sonorous name and bright color are forever attached to these flowers, as well as to a cocktail of orange juice and champagne.
This combination also has the name Buck’s Fiz, with which we will begin our study. However, first the recipe itself, which, according to good tradition, was taken from the website of the International Bartenders Association.
Mimosa cocktail recipe (build, sparkling long drink)
Traditionally, a cocktail is prepared in a special champagne glass – a flute, which is simply called “champagne” in the common people. The recipe for making a Mimosa cocktail is extremely simple – no more difficult than mixing a Screwdriver or a simple Black Russian.
Ingredients:
- 75 ml of champagne or any other sparkling wine;
- 75 ml orange juice or juice.
Preparation:
- Combine all the ingredients in a glass and garnish with a slice of orange if desired.
The proportions can be changed in any direction. We figured out the recipe, now let’s get back to the basics. So, Buck’s Club, a gentlemen’s club in London, was founded in 1919 and named after its founder, Captain Herbert Buckmaster, who, while still at the front, together with his friends, decided to open a prestigious and elegant club with an American Cocktail Bar after the war. From 1919 to 1941, the bartender Pat McGeary worked at the counter of this bar, who actually invented the physical named after the club.
One of the British bartenders Robert Vermeir, in his 1922 handbook, also credits McGery with the first preparation of the Sidecar. But now is not about that. Buckmaster was married to the famous English actress Gladys Kupper, with whom he divorced in 1921, but continued to “rotate” in theatrical and cinematic circles, often attending parties, where he took his personal bartender McGeary with him.
And so, on one of these evenings, one of the guests ordered champagne with peach puree, which he tasted in Venice (most likely in the Grand Hotel Europe, where Giuseppe Cipriani worked then, who would find a suitable name for his cocktail only in 1948 – after the exhibition of the artist Bellini ). Finding no peaches, the bartender mixed orange juice, champagne and a secret additive, according to some claims, it was gin and cherry liqueur. Most likely, this was exactly the case, since there are stories where a few drops of Grenadine syrup are added to the Bucks Fiz, which suggests a connection with liqueur through the red color, but gin is clearly spelled out in the Fiz recipe by Frank Mayer from the Ritz in Paris in a book published in 1936.
By the way, a simple version of juice and champagne called Mimosa, or Champagne Orange, also appears there (by the way, this is a fairly common opinion that Mimosa was invented in the Parisian Rietz in 1925). Since Caesar Ritz, whose name the hotel is named after, was the author of the name Grand Marnier, the famous orange liqueur on cognac became the official drink of all Ritz hotels and at some point the liqueur was added to the cocktail, calling it Grand Mimosa.
But, by and large, for many people, Buck’s Fiz and Mimosa are the same thing, it’s just that Buck’s Fiz (orange juice and champagne) is on the list of classic cocktails of the International Bartenders Association, and it is called that mainly in Britain, where it is considered a wedding drink and hangover cure. Buck’s Fiz even became the name of a popular English band in the 80s. but still this combination is most often referred to as “Mimosa”.
An interesting fact that takes us back to the beginning of the story, in the Venetian Harry’s Bar, due to the seasonality of white peaches until the food companies began to produce frozen mashed potatoes, Bellini was prepared only in the summer, the rest of the time its alternative was Mimosa. Mimosa is also considered one of the “signature” cocktails of the New Orleans restaurant Brennan’s (the favorite place of American actor Anthony Hopkins), where the famous Brennan breakfasts are served with a large wine glass of a bright yellow cocktail with strawberries on the edge.
“Champagne is drunk in the morning either by aristocrats or degenerates”, the rest prefer Mimosa.