What champagne for mimosa?

Cafe Society
1

OK, a mimosa is a combo of orange juice and champagne. Is a specific type of champagne best?

See. I’m planning a dinner for two next Sunday, Easter, for me and my mother. Because of family work and other relatives not being able to assemble, it’s just her and me. I want it to be special. I’ll get some sliced ham and grill it. I’ll bake the bread myself, and get some good broccoli cheese salad from the salad bar at the store(It really is good salad) Don’t know about dessert.

But for fun I want mimosas. I’m even going to get good oranges and squeeze them myself. Although I’ve drunk them I’ve never mixed them, so I don’t know if a specific type of champagne is best. Can Dopers help me out?

2

A cheap one. A mimosa is basically carbonated OJ with alcohol. It’d be like putting $50 vodka in a Bloody Mary if you used expensive champagne.

3

I was thinking dry, sweet, something in between? But thanks for the input.

4

I use a regular spumanti, which is probably making people shudder, but I don’t like a dry sparkling wine with the acidity of the OJ.

Oh, who am I kidding. I just have some spumanti and a splash of OJ so I don’t look like a lush at 10 in the morning.

5

A cheap brut is just fine. Or something like Freixenet.

6

My point is that it’s probably not going to matter. OJ is very sweet and of strong flavor. You won’t taste the champagne. What you get from it is alcohol and effervescence. Little or no taste or flavor.

7

Grab a bottle of prosecco from Trader Joe’s.
It’ll do just fine.

8

Freixenet or another cava (Spanish sparkling wine) would work fine. Juice optional! Segura Viudas makes a nice pink version–works well with blood oranges which are now in season. Or with Texas red grapefruits.

The juice is sweet, so I prefer a dry wine. More than one or two glasses could cloy. If you squeeze the juice yourself, I’d suggest straining it.

9

I love how someone somewhere invented a drink just so they could have an excuse to drink in the morning. :smiley:

10

There’s quite a range in cava as well as in any other wine family, but definitely n-ing “a cheap one”. Depending on which oranges you’re using, you may want to try different mixes: for example, blood oranges usually aren’t as sweet as navels and navelinas, so depending on your taste you may want to compensate the oranges’ tartness with a sweeter choice than for navelinas.

11

Korbel works well.

12

Thanks again. I will strain the juice.

I’ll look at the liquor store and see what the price range is. Since it’s just one bottle and it’s for my mom there won’t really be a problem. I wish I was more knowledgable about wines, but I’m not.

13

This is for your mother; don’t do it! Get a decent pink Champagne instead.

14

I’ve enjoyed a few breakfasts at Turtle Pier in St Martin (no longer open). They had a complete drinks menu at breakfast. The same holds true for The Erin Rose in NOLA, which is still open.

15

Drinking rum with breakfast doesn’t mean you’re an alcoholic - it means you’re a PIRATE!

16

Another vote for cava - it’s the working man’s champagne.

17

His advise was actually spot on… it doesn’t matter since you won’t taste any nuances in the Champagne due to the Orange Juice so just use anything cheap but drinkable.

18

I SO want a T-shirt with this printed on it!

19

Yes, but avoid the really awful stuff, like Korbel and–god forbid–Cooks.

Another vote for Freixenet

I’ve also had better Champagne and it is quite good.

By they way, mimosas are also very good with ruby red grapefruit juice.

20

Whatever you do, do not use Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin. We had friends over for brunch and my gf asked me to make mimosas. Apparently, I used “the good stuff” which was a mistake.