Hôtel Ritz Paris, 1925.
| 2 oz · 60 ml | ORANGE JUICE | |
| 4 oz · 120 ml | SPARKLING WINE | 12 % |
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
| Pre-batch | 2 oz mixed with ice, 0 oz of it pure alcohol |
|---|---|
| Melt | Stirred: +15 % of the pre-batch, +0.3 oz of water |
| Topped | Poured after the melt, kept whole: sparkling wine 4 oz, +0.48 oz of alcohol |
| Served | 2 + 0.3 + 4 = 6.3 oz in the glass, 0.48 oz of it alcohol |
| Strength | 0.48 ÷ 6.3 = 7.6 % ABV as served |
| Ethanol | 0.48 oz × 29.57 ml × 0.789 g/ml = 11 g · about 78 kcal from the alcohol alone |
FROM SPARKLING · the dominant grape acid
The dominant acid in grapes and the reason wine tastes sharp instead of flat. Forms crystals ("wine diamonds") when bottled wine gets cold; harmless, sometimes filtered out, sometimes left in as a mark of authenticity. Without acid, wine is sugar water.
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FROM ORANGE JUICE · the lemon aroma
Lemon's defining note: technically a mix of two geometric isomers (geranial and neral) that read as the same aroma to the nose. Lemon peel, lemongrass, lemon verbena, and Indian chai all carry it. In cocktails it's what a lemon twist contributes that lemon juice can't: the volatile expressed from the oil glands, not the acid from the pulp.
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Orange juice and sparkling wine. Fresh orange juice's sugar rounds the wine's sharp acidity. The pour lands near 8% ABV.
Juice first. Sparkling second. Henry's Law: opened, the wine holds more CO₂ than it can keep at the glass's 1 atm, and every bubble needs a site to form on — fibers on the glass, pulp in the juice. Poured slowly down the side of a tilted flute, the rising bead mixes the wine into the juice, and less of its CO₂ breaks out as foam.
Bartender Frank Meier is credited with composing the Mimosa at the Hôtel Ritz Paris bar around 1925, named for the yellow blossoms of the mimosa tree. A near-identical drink (the Buck's Fizz) had been served at London's Buck's Club since 1921 in a 2:1 wine-to-juice ratio. The Ritz version split the components evenly and stuck.
