Aperol Spritz
90 ml Sparkling wine, 60 ml Aperol, 30 ml Soda water, 1 Orange slice, 1 large cube Ice
Mimosa
Sparkling wine and orange juice, the easiest celebration there is.
Sparkling
Easy
2 min
Photo: Mimosa at Station House Cafe - March 2022 - Sarah Stierch by Missvain · CC BY 4.0 · All credits
Ingredients
- 75 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) and one small side (25 ml) of a standard jigger. Sparkling wine - Something dry - prosecco, cava or a crisp champagne
- 75 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) and one small side (25 ml) of a standard jigger. Orange juice - Freshly squeezed, with the pulp strained out
- 1 twist Orange twist (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Juice in the glass, wine on top, stir once and drink it now.
Method
- Chill both the wine and the juice properly - this drink has no ice to hide behind.
- Pour the orange juice into a chilled flute, filling it about half.
- Top up slowly with the sparkling wine, tilting the glass so it keeps its fizz.
- Stir once with a bar spoon, twist a strip of orange peel over the top and drop it in.
Serve it
Mimosa
Invented, so the story goes, at the Ritz in Paris in the 1920s - where it was first made with the local white wine and a splash of orange liqueur, until somebody discovered that champagne worked better and made a habit of it. It spread through American brunches and never really left, which is a compliment: nobody invents a drink that good and keeps it to themselves.
Getting it right
Equal parts is the classic proportion and it wants a dry wine, because the juice is sweet enough for both of them. Everything must be cold: a mimosa has no ice in it, so any warmth in the bottle ends up in the glass. Pour the juice first and the wine second, down the side of a tilted flute, and you will keep far more of the bubbles than if you pour it straight in. Two parts wine to one part juice makes a drier, sharper drink - good with breakfast, dangerous at lunchtime.
Tasting notes
Crisp citrus with a fine, persistent fizz and a dry finish from the wine. It is barely a cocktail and entirely a pleasure.
For a Buck's Fizz, use two parts juice to one part wine and tell everyone that is the original
- in Britain, it broadly is.
More Sparkling wine cocktails
Bellini
100 ml Sparkling wine, 50 ml Peach purée, 1 slice Peach
Kir Royale
15 ml Crème de cassis, 120 ml Champagne, 1 Blackberry