035 – Buck’s Fizz (or Mimosa)

Sydney Covid ‘lock-down’ exploration of the ‘Buck’s Fizz’ cocktail, you may also know the very similarly constructed ‘Mimosa’ cocktail.

Lockdown has inspired me to explore this famous cocktail, created in 1921. Let’s take a look at the classic ‘Buck’s Fizz’ cocktail, and explore some of the cocktail’s construction and history.

Make your own ‘mix-at-home’ Locktail, the ‘Buck’s Fizz’, or if you prefer the ‘Mimosa’.

METHOD – Place oranges in the fridge (in advance) then freshly squeeze and strain just prior to making cocktail. Add 60ml Orange Juice and 90ml Champagne (good quality) slowly into chilled glass ware. Garnish with a slice of Orange (optional). FOR MIMOSA – Identical except 75ml Orange Juice and 75ml Champagne over ice in the glass.

HISTORICAL NOTES – Champagne Cups (precursors to cocktails) have been around for a long time, a whole page is devoted to them in William Terrington’s 1869 classic, ‘Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks’.

The Buck’s Fizz however is the 1921 creation of Malachy (‘Pat’) McGarry, the first Bartender of London’s Buck’s Club. It called for, as now, one-third orange juice and one-third champagne. Only 4-years later, in 1925, Frank Meier is said to have created the ‘Mimosa’ at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, France, which is half-and-half and made over ice.

The Buck’s Fizz has had a long life as a cocktail, but reached it’s peak in the 1970’s and 1980’s as the de-facto ‘on-arrival’ drink at Weddings and similar events. The issue became that caterers would use concentrated low-grade orange juice or cordial and poor quality cheap sparkling white wine, just about destroying the cocktail with poor craftsmanship.

In 1981, British pop-band ‘Buck’s Fizz’ won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song ‘Making Your Mind Up’, that you can view here. This ‘ABBA-esque’ group had three No.1 hit songs and four members and some of their crew were injured in a tour-bus crash on the return from a concert in Newcastle, England. Two seriously, with band member Mick Nolan never fully recovering from the head injuries he sustained. Nolan and Baker helped set up the ‘HeadFirst’ charity for crash victims suffering head injuries.

The ‘Buck’s Fizz’ cocktail, while still living on, has been supplanted by various versions of the ‘Mimosa’ and ‘Bellini’ (created in 1948 in Italy, and usually Prosecco and white-peach purée), with some variants adding additional spirits such as Gin, Vodka, Rum or Whisky and colour from raspberry or cherry juice.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – The ‘Mimosa’ is included in the International Bartender Association (IBA) ‘Contemporary Classics’ official cocktail list, here. It calls for 75ml of Prosecco and 75ml of fresh orange juice, with an optional orange twist garnish. The entry also notes that it is also known as a ‘Buck’s Fizz’.

I have a major issues with the IBA on this cocktail’s official structure, neither the ‘Buck’s Fizz’ nor the ‘Mimosa’ are Prosecco based, that is the territory of the 1948 ‘Bellini’ created in Italy. The ‘Mimosa’ itself was created in Paris, France and therefore obviously has a Champagne base.

TASTING NOTES – Orange juice sweetened Champagne. Often acceptable to drinkers who do not particularly like Champagne by itself, hence the common use for events such as Weddings. This cocktail requires good ingredients (both the orange juice and Champagne), for them both the be added just prior to drinking – for the coldness of the drink, and also so that any orange solids do not separate and the drink retains it’s fizz. If the drink is likely to warm quickly (due to time or conditions) it may be better to make the ‘Mimosa’ and keep ice in the cocktail glass.

In comparing the ‘Mimosa’ to the ‘Buck’s Fizz’, the main difference is the ice in the glass. The issue is that in the ‘Mimosa’ it dramatically reduces the Champagne ‘bubbles’ (fizz) and as a result the quality of the cocktail. The best of the two is a ‘Buck’s Fizz’ made with very cold ingredients, fresh into an already chilled glass – a far better result. Ice should only be used in the glass if there is no other way of producing this cocktail cold.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – No changes, just a revisit of the 1921 original. Fresh (as in just-squeezed) cold orange juice and good quality Champagne, in our case Piper-Heidsieck (created in 1785 – these days part of the Rémy Cointreau group and owning no vineyards of their own, but still a quality and reasonably economical Champagne).

YOUR LOCKTAIL EXPERIENCE – If you’d rather taste than read, I am progressively building an ingredient list and other sourcing information on this site. I will re-use ingredients where I can (good for my budget too), so that the cost goes down overtime if you are ‘playing at home’.

Let me know what you think.

Cocktails you’d like reinvented.

Recipes you’ve tried and your ‘score’.

This is the fifth of the 1921-1930 (‘roaring twenties’) bracket of ‘Locktail’ remixes. Full list in the index.