Maple Apple Cider Mimosa

Champagne, fresh apple cider, and maple syrup — the Paris Ritz Mimosa (Frank Meier, 1925) given a New England identity with Colonial cider and maple traditions.

The Maple Apple Cider Mimosa is a seasonal New England variation on the Mimosa — created at the Ritz Hotel in Paris in 1925, when head bartender Frank Meier combined champagne and fresh orange juice in equal parts, naming the drink for the mimosa plant (Acacia dealbata) whose yellow-orange flowers the combination's color resembled. The apple cider and maple variation substitutes two quintessentially northeastern North American ingredients for the original's Mediterranean citrus: fresh pressed apple cider from New England's abundant apple orchards, and pure maple syrup from the sugar maple groves of Quebec, Vermont, and neighboring states that are harvested during the brief late-winter thaw. Both substitutions carry specific regional and seasonal significance: apple orchards are among the defining agricultural landscapes of New England and upstate New York, and the hard cider tradition dating to Colonial times made pressed apple the region's oldest fermented beverage. Pure maple syrup's sotolon and caramelized sugar complexity adds depth to what would otherwise be a simple cider-wine combination, and the combination's warm amber color against sparkling wine's pale gold produces an autumn brunch drink of genuinely seasonal visual character.