Being Mimosa Day, why not give the Mimosa an extra kick by adding some Grand Marnier to the drink, making it a Grand Mimosa. Since it’s supposedly a favorite aperitif in the British Royal Family (along with the Dubonnet Cocktail) it is a perfect drink to enjoy on a warm day in May.’

THE MIMOSA
The Mimosa got its name from the delicate yellow Mimosa flower. It is essentially a fruitier Buck’s Fizz and was created in 1925 by a bartender called Frank Meier at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. Interestingly, in Frank Meier’s own cocktail book “The Artistry of Mixing Drinks” from 1936 Meier listed 300 cocktails marking the ones he had created with a symbol. The Mimosa never got one. It might have been a printer’s error or he never actually invented it. The Mimosa calls for equal measures of champagne and freshly squeezed orange juice served over ice whilst the Buck’s Fizz uses 1 part orange juice to 2 parts champagne without the ice. Some suggest the Mimosa was first made in San Francisco in the 1940’s by none other than Sir Alfred Hitchcock but as it appeared in Frank Meier’s cocktail book in 1936, that’s not very likely. That said, Hitchcock was, along with Royal Family, essential in making the Mimosa popular in the United States. In 1961 the London correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald reported that “The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Queen Mother all have adopted a champagne cocktail they call Mimosa.” Apparently the Queen had been introduced to the drink by Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who in turn had picked it up on a visit to France. The Mimosa appeared on brunch menus in New York in the early 1970s and has stayed ever since.

THE DESIGNER
Cesare Colombo, more known as Joe Colombo, designed the Smoke glass in 1964. It is made so that you can drink while keeping your cigarette at the ready in the same hand.