Cranberry Mimosa

The cranberry mimosa is tart and bubbly with a vibrant red color! The combo of orange and cranberry makes an ideal brunch drink for parties.

Everything’s better with bubbles, right? Here’s the latest drink in our bubbles craze, and it makes a brilliant brunch drink that works for any season. Try the Cranberry Mimosa! Tart cranberry is an ideal pairing for subtly sweet orange juice. Pair the two and the glass is full of fiery red color and crisp flavor. It’s bubbly, it’s refreshing, and it’s downright fun. It’s easy as pie to mix up and perfect for entertaining. While some might reserve cranberry for winter, we think you can serve it any time of year! (For a holiday version, go to the Poinsettia.)

What’s in a cranberry mimosa?

The mimosa is a simple and classic combination of two ingredients: orange juice and champagne. The mimosa is actually on the list of International Bartender Association’s IBA official cocktails, meaning there’s an “official” definition. The cranberry mimosa is a spin on the standard that adds tart red juice into the mix. Here’s what you’ll need for this easy drink:

• Cranberry juice: Use unsweetened for the best results, or sweetened if you like sweet drinks (see below)
• Orange juice: Any type will do, bottled or fresh squeezed
• Sparkling wine: use champagne, Prosecco, or your favorite sparkling wine

Unsweetened vs sweetened cranberry juice

Here’s something to know about cranberry juice. Classic cranberry drinks like the Vodka Cranberry were traditionally made with sweetened cranberry juice, sometimes labeled cranberry juice cocktail. This type of cranberry juice has added sugars and sometimes high-fructose corn syrup as sweetener.

We prefer making cranberry juice cocktails with 100% cranberry juice, which is unsweetened! You’ll find the flavor is crisp, clear and very tart. It definitely requires tempering with sweetness, which is the orange juice in this case. But the flavor is brings is pure cranberry! We also use this concept in our new and improved Cosmopolitan and all our cranberry drinks.

Do you love sweet drinks? If you want this cranberry mimosa to taste sweeter, add a drizzle of simple syrup.

More about sparkling wines

You can use any type of sparkling wine for this cranberry mimosa! Typically champagne is used in a standard mimosa, but we love ours with Prosecco as well. It’s a little sweeter and tends to be a tad cheaper, too. Here’s a breakdown of a few regional sparkling wines (or see Prosecco vs Champagne):

• Champagne: French sparkling wine. It tastes bubbly and fruity, with undertones of almond and orange. It’s typically the most expensive sparkling wine.
• Prosecco: Italian sparkling wine. It’s a little sweeter than champagne and has lighter bubbles. It’s fruity and flowery, with notes of apple, pear and lemon.
• Cava: Spanish sparkling wine. It has more citrus notes, and is a little more savory and less fruity.

How to make a cranberry mimosa: a few tips

The cranberry mimosa is so easy to make: simply pour all the ingredients in a champagne flute! Here are the only tips to keep in mind:

• Add the sparkling wine last. In our standard mimosa we add the sparkling wine first, which avoids overfilling the glass with out of control champagne bubbles. For this one though, we like adding the champagne last. The cranberry juice tends to overpower the bubbles if you do it the other way around.
• Garnish with blood orange or whole cranberries. This cranberry mimosa we garnished with a blood orange slice because we happened to have it on hand. But we love the look of the bright red streaks on the inside of the citrus, which match this drink! If it’s the right season and you can find them, you can also garnish with frozen or fresh whole cranberries. Speaking of seasons…

Holiday variation: the Poinsettia

Is the cranberry mimosa a holiday drink? Well, not really. We made this in the fall and we absolutely loved the combination of flavors! Plus, cranberry juice is not reserved only for cool weather. The vodka cranberry and Bay Breeze are cranberry drinks that work in summer too. So this cranberry mimosa works in any season.

Are you looking for a holiday drink? You can absolutely serve this one, or try the Poinsettia instead! The only difference is the Poinsettia has Cointreau (orange liqueur) instead of orange juice. It also has a rosemary branch and cranberries as a garnish, so it looks dressed up for the holidays.

When to serve this cranberry mimosa

This cranberry mimosa is tart and bubbly! It’s great for serving as a:

• Brunch drink
• Fall cocktail or winter cocktail
• Holiday drink
• Summer drink
• Bridal shower drink or bachelorette party drink

More cranberry drinks

There are so many tasty cranberry cocktails to make with a bottle of juice! Here are a few of our top recipes to try:

• Mix up a batch of tasty and festive Cosmopolitans!
• Enjoy the easy breezy Sea Breeze Cocktail with grapefruit juice
• Mix in white rum and lime with the Rum & Cranberry Cocktail
• Stir together a Long Beach Iced Tea
• Add that trendy elderflower liqueur with a St Germain & Cranberry Cocktail
• Sip the classic cranberry orange combo in the Madras
• Add bubbles and fruit for a refreshing Vodka Spritzer
• Layer it with pineapple in a Bay Breeze Cocktail

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Cosmopolitan Cocktail

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Sea Breeze Cocktail

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Vodka Spritzer

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Long Beach Iced Tea

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