Bubbles: The Mimosa

Last week was New Year's. All the holiday festivities got me thinking about champagne, that most famous of sparkling wines. While a good bottle to share with friends and family can be nice on its own, the unique, complex flavor and distinct texture of champagne makes it an ideal candidate for a number of interesting mixed drinks. By simply using champagne in places where you would use another spirit, say vodka, you can make a cocktail that is at once light and stimulating. That's why today, I'm going to delve into the deceptively intricate beauty of champagne's most famous mixed iteration.

The Mimosa

This is the simplest of all champagne cocktails. Just mix three parts champagne and two parts orange juice (fresh, if you've got it). Now, some recipes call for pouring the orange juice first. I think this is a mistake. Whenever mixing two liquids together for a cocktail, you want to add the heavier of the two liquids to the lighter of the two. It's simple physics. If you pour your champagne into your orange juice, what you'll have is a short glass of champagne floating on top of a slightly fizzy glass of orange juice. The suggestion to pour the champagne second comes from the concern that the carbonation in the champagne will exit the drink when it foams during the pour. This is silly for two reasons. The first we'll get into in a moment. The second is that all it takes is a careful pour. Tilt your flute like you're pouring a beer and you'll suffer minimal fizz-loss.

Now, when it comes to cocktails, a good origin story is often half the fun. That's what I like about the Mimosa. It may seem like a silly waste to pop open a bottle of expensive champagne just for a brunch drink. Frankly, I think it is, too. But that's not where the Mimosa comes from. Just imagine you've had a wedding reception. There's a ton of half-finished bottles of champagne sitting the fridge. Morning comes around and your guests are hungry, maybe even a little hung-over. Well, there's no need to waste. Just mix some of last night's champagne with a refreshing, energizing shot of OJ and you've fixed a multitude of problems in one bout of preservationist kitchen ingenuity.

This is what I was talking about earlier when I mentioned that carbonation really shouldn't be a concern for the Mimosa. The original version of the drink more than likely used champagne that had lost its zip hours before it came into contact with the orange juice.

Many Mimosa makers don't bother with a garnish, as pretty much everything served in a fluted glass comes without a garnish anyway. I think that's a wasted opportunity. But don't go the vodka route here and garnish with a slice of orange. Garnishes exist to augment flavors, not as redundant bits of decoration. That's why you should consider bringing a slice of strawberry to the party. Strawberries are already known to go well with champagne, but the sweet, tangy fruit will also serve to build a nice bridge between the two liquid ingredients as well.

The Mimosa is an elegant solution to a common party host's dilemma, and a mighty tasty one at that. While I still can't get behind opening a fresh bottle of champagne just to make a few, there's no harm in using the leftovers to make brunch more interesting. If nothing else, it lends a nice sense of continuity to a weekend of festivities.