Want some company?
Maybe a flute filled with a mix of bubbly champagne and orange juice will make the time worth it. Would you prefer to have mimosas for a brunch date or a bachelor party?
Mimosas are attributed to a healthy lifestyle, hence becoming a favored cocktail for people like us. The main ingredient of mimosa is Champagne or sparkling wine, which is made in a traditional method. A sweet orange juice mixed with sweet champagne can ruin the taste. Therefore for the bubbly, we need the champagne to have less sugar content.
The grape varieties known for their lusciousness and quality are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier.
Would you love to pair orange juice with dry sparkling or dry still wine? For dry sparkling wine, the sugar content will be higher
1. What Makes Good Champagne a Luxe than a Product?
Not any random sparkling wine can be named Champagne. It has to be a sparkling wine that is produced in the Champagne region in France. Another condition is that the grapefruit has to be made from specific varieties of grapes that are grown in France.
The laborious process of separating the grapes, pressing, settling and racking, primary fermentation, settling, blending clarifying, and bottling results in the sparkling wine which makes evidence for its price hike.
2. First Discovery: Buck Fizz or Mimosa
Buck’s Fizz originated from the Buck’s Club in London.
The ingredients were the same back then but the concentration was different from the one created in a hotel in Paris. Buck’s fizz contains more champagne than a mimosa.
3. Let’s Get to Making Mimosas
Time to savor! Feel like experimenting with something new?
For a classic mimosa, firstly add none other than the sparkling bubbly and the second ingredient is orange juice.
Preparation of mimosa can be done at your comfort refrain from the usage of cheap wines.
Other alternatives to champagne are prosecco or cava which are comparatively lesser on the pricy side.
The perfect ratio for mimosa is 1:1 with about 21/2 ounces of orange juice and 21/2 ounces of sparkling wine.
3.1. Ingredients for Mimosas
- 1 bottle(750 ml) bottle of champagne
- 3 cups orange juice
3.2. Instructions for Making Mimosas
- Pour the champagne wine into the champagne flutes, filling it halfway.
- Next, top it up with some orange juice.
- Pour the mixture into a flute glass.
- Garnish with cut fruits and a skewer otherwise make it simple by using just an orange slice.
- However, for a non-alcoholic mimosa, substitute plain or flavored sparkling water or grape juice instead of sparkling wine.
Mimosa tips: If you have some balanced champagne, keep it cold and the fizz is supposed to last for days. Never stir a mimosa as it disrupts the bubbles in the champagne resulting in a flat champagne.
3.3. Mixing-Up Your Mimosas
Getting bored with the same method?
Switch orange juice to other alternatives like cranberry, cherry, pineapple, guava, and many more. Another ingredient that will change the game will be tequila resulting in the Tequila Sunrise Mimosa.
To make the tempting drink we can use fruit purees like peach, and liqueurs like Chambord, and orange liqueur.
4. Best Champagne: This Seems to Be a Task
Need a hand?
Disclaimer suggestions can be a little expensive.
But I will list some good affordable ones as well.
4.1. Veuve clicquot brut champagne N.V.
Alluring aroma and balanced acidity. The aroma is ensured to be lingering in your mouth post-drinking.
Tasting notes:– As it is a blend of reserved wines the taste is exotic. Pinot Noir makes a dominating appearance along with Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. The tanginess depends on the duration of storage.
4.2. Bollinger Special Brut Cuvée Aÿ Champagne
A golden-colored fine bubbly drink.A blend of black grape varieties.
The pungent hue of ripe fruit and hints of roasted apple brings delight. Warm mimosas are not so refreshing so savor it chilled for the best experience.
4.3. Moet and Chandon Brut Rose Imperial
This Champagne is clean-cut and spicy with a lacy texture and a creamy finish.
To hold their wine as their signature, the grape growers at Moet and Chandon collect grapes from various villages and then start the process of ‘melange’. Post-harvesting the best varieties from Grand Cru and Premier Cru are utilized to make the bubbly unbeatable. Multicolored and addictive green apple and cranberry flavors are a blessing to the eyes.
4.5. Valdo Marca Oro Rose Brut
This variation is considered an ideal aperitif.
Preparation is done with proper care by using the best grapes.
It has a soft and exuberant flavor. Paired well with fish and Mediterranean salads. The grape variety includes a combination of Glera and Pinot Noir.
4.6. Few Affordable Alternatives
4.6.1. Spanish Cava
The inexpensive sparkling wine from Spain is made from a variety called the Macabeu grape using the traditional method of champenoise.
4.6.2. Prosecco Sparkling White Wine
It is made with the Prosecco grape. The price stands at somewhere below $20. This drink has the aroma of tropical fruits, banana cream, hazelnut, vanilla, and honeycomb.
4.6.3. Crémant
A lesser-known type of French Bubbly that’s made following the same process as Champagne but is far less expensive. For the best mimosa or any cocktail, French Champagne would work well. With the bubbly’s crisp acidity and other ingredients, the drink will be elevated to a memorable cocktail.
5. Special Mimosa Recipe for Christmas
This Christmas, a cold December sitting by the fireplace with a champagne flute filled halfway.
The best mimosa you could drink with your closest kin. Wouldn’t it be magical in a world where no one has time?
To make this recipe, all you need is gin, fresh citrus juice (preferably orange), champagne, and a triple sac.
Are we forgetting an ingredient that might make the drink divine? It’s love. Experimenting with new and learning is a process. Therefore, this recipe can be twisted by adding some cranberry juice or sparkling wine.
If you wish you might as well turn this mimosa into a mocktail by switching the champagne with sparkling water or lemon soda. This boozy delight must not be missed.
5.1. Ingredients for Mimosa Recipe for Christmas
- 20 millilitre dry gin
- 30 milliliter orange juice
- 15 milliliter triple sec
- 60 milliliter champagne
- 30-milliliter cranberry juice
5.2. Instructions for Making Mimosa for Christmas
- Mix all the ingredients
- Add in some Champagne. Serve with herbs like rosemary(optional)
- Apple cider mimosas, a fall cocktail is great for breakfast or to be on the brunch table.
- For making it you will need apple cider, champagne, and apple slices to garnish.
6. A Mimosa Bar
A Mimosa bar for friends is something that can be customized at your home.
Begin by arranging a few bottles of bubbles in ice-packed buckets along with several pitchers of juice.
The classic perfect mimosa uses freshly squeezed orange juice but guava, mango, pomegranate, and pineapple juice all end up in a flavored drink.
6.1. Creating a Mimosa Bar
Creating a mimosa bar can be fun. The following are the ways to create a Mimosa Bar:
- First, clean and classy:- Make it spacious so that even a large group can fit in luxuriously. Glassware must be organized and stacked to the right. Gather the champagne options and place the fruity mixers to the left.
- Glassware of good quality serves mimosas using proper champagne flutes so that they get a full-on experience. Spending a ton is not what is expected.
- A luxe appearance:- Transferring your juices of choice from plastic bottles to matching glass vessels.
- Choose looking at your wallet:- You don’t want to go bankrupt buying all expensive champagne for mimosas.
- Consider all your guests:- offer non-alcoholic options
- All the hard work put in gets the result if you chill the Champagne.
- Giving it a southern touch of hospitality would be welcoming.
7. Sparkling Wine
What is the difference between Champagne, Cava, and Prosecco?
Prosecco is from Italy, Cava belongs to Spain.
Sparkling wines are carbonated wines that can be made from any white or red grape. Apart from regular white sparkling wines, sparkling rosé, and red wine can also be found.
Although making sparkling wine is pretty expensive, there is a cheaper method known as the Chamat Method. In this method, the wine is transferred to a large sealed pressurized tank right after its first fermentation.
After that, the wine goes through a second fermentation process within the bottle itself and it is then stored and again it is transferred to a tank to filter it further.
The levels of sweetness in sparkling wines are extra-brut, Brut, extra-dry, and Demi-sec. Demi-sec is the sweetest sparkling wine with evident sugar content.
8. American Sparkling Wine
Winemakers residing in America now are using apples and guava in their sparklers.
American wines have a noticeable level of deep passion as the restrictions are less. Newfound tastes are for some reason more exciting than the same repetitive taste.
As a result, the wines made with new ideas and not with rules exhibit reflections of spirit and excitement. Such experience you will have if you will try The Oyster River Morphos sparkler. With its crisp, bright, citrusy, and zest flavors this drink will create the perfect mood on a sunny day.
Another variety of sweet sparkling wine that is low in alcohol is The Cinzano Asti Spumante.
Made from 100% Moscato grapes, Floral, fruity, and herbaceous which makes it attractive.
It has a straw yellow with light green reflections. For the flavor profile, it has sweet white peach and good freshness. The taste blends well with desserts such as panettone or hazelnut cake.
9. What Makes Cava Unique?
There are three main grapes used in Cava namely, Macabeu, Xarel-lo, and Paralleda.
With the floral freshness and zesty citrus flavor, this drink becomes unique. Cava is closer to a non-vintage Champagne. The three styles are
- Brut Cava- less sweet
- Cava Rose- peachy floral aroma
- Nutty and Toasty- More producers keep aging their wines creating baked notes of apple and almond. Have you heard about the Mumm Napa Brut Prestige? Made with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. A sparkling fizzy wine from California with revealing notes of apples, flowers, and almonds. The wine is pale gold, bursting with bubbles and a good amount of foam. Hints of citrus, melon, and honeysuckle spread an enchanting aroma.
10. Blanc de Blancs
An enticing French term meaning ” white of whites.” In terms of Champagne, the wine is 100% Chardonnay.
It has more apple-like fruit flavors. Most Champagne wines have citrus and apple-like aromas with slight notes of toasted brioche and almonds
11. Veuve Clicquot And Champagne’s Founder Lady, Barbe-Nicole
Veuve means ” widow” in French.
Barbe Nicole’s husband Francois died of typhoid and she replaced him in their wine business.
She was an able, strong lady who was able to take matters into her own hands without batting an eye.
Madame Clicquot innovated the technique called Remuage which clears sparkling wine of cloudy yeast after fermentation
Veuve Clicquot demi-sec is a unique blend of 45% Pinot Noir, 35% Meunier and, 25% Chardonnay.
The long aging in Crayérs (3 years minimum) gives silkiness to the Champagne. Hints of toasted brioche are therapeutic aromas this drink offers.
12. What Is the Difference Between Champagne and Sparkling Wine?
- Sparkling wine is still wine produced during primary fermentation.
- Champagne as we discussed above is made of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes and is stored for 18 months.
- The sweetness of sparkling is determined by the level of the final dosage, which is the sugar and wine mixture added to sparkling wine to balance out the acidity.
- To sum up, champagne is a drink for creating some special memories, but now I feel that after understanding all the facts, I would find an excuse to drink it more often especially because I am attracted to the fact that it has fewer calories.
Last Updated on by Sathi Chakraborty, MSc Biology
