Mimosa

Champagne and OJ — disputed between Buck's Club London (MacGarry, 1921) and Paris Ritz (Meier, c. 1925), named for Acacia dealbata whose flowers match the color.

The Mimosa's precise origin is genuinely disputed, with two competing accounts and no definitive documentary evidence to settle the question. The first claim traces the drink to Buck's Club in London in 1921, where the mixture of champagne and orange juice was reportedly created by the club's head barman Pat MacGarry as the Buck's Fizz — a name still used in Britain today. The club was founded in 1919 on Clifford Street in Mayfair, and its association with champagne-and-juice drinks has been consistent enough that Buck's Fizz remains a recognized entity separate from the American Mimosa. The second and more widely cited account attributes the Mimosa's creation to Frank Meier, the head bartender at the Ritz Hotel Paris, around 1925. Meier, an Austrian who worked at the Paris Ritz from 1921 until the German occupation forced him to leave in 1940, documented numerous cocktail recipes in his 1936 book The Artistry of Mixing Drinks, and the champagne-orange juice combination consistent with the Mimosa appears in his documented repertoire. The cocktail takes its name from the mimosa plant — Acacia dealbata, a species of flowering tree native to southeastern Australia and widely cultivated in the Mediterranean — whose clusters of small yellow flowers closely resemble the color of champagne mixed with orange juice. Whatever its precise origin, the drink became the defining brunch cocktail of the 20th century, particularly in the United States, where its relative lightness and festive associations made it the default choice for late-morning celebrations.