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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. Some might reserve cranberry for winter, but we think you can serve it any time of year!
Ingredients 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.
- 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.
Types of sparkling wines for a mimosa
You can use any type of sparkling wine for this cranberry mimosa. Typically champagne is used in a standard mimosa, but we like ours with Prosecco. It’s a little sweeter flavor-wise and tends to be a tad cheaper. Here’s a breakdown of sparkling wines types:
- 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.
Tips for making a cranberry mimosa
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, 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. 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.
Holiday variation: the Poinsettia
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.
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.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 drink 1x
- Category: Drink
- Method: Poured
- Cuisine: Cocktails
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 1 ½ ounces (3 tablespoons) unsweetened cranberry juice, chilled if possible*
- 1 ½ ounces (3 tablespoons) orange juice
- 4 ounces (½ cup) Prosecco
- For the garnish: orange or blood orange slice, lime slice, or whole cranberries
Instructions
- Add the cranberry juice and orange juice to a champagne flute.
- Tilt the champagne flute and pour in the champagne or Prosecco. Garnish with an orange slice or lime slice.
Notes
*If you like very sweet drinks, you could add a touch of simple syrup or use sweetened cranberry juice.
More cranberry cocktails
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 the popular Cosmopolitan, or enjoy the easy breezy Sea Breeze Cocktail with grapefruit juice.
- Stir together a Long Beach Iced Tea, or add that trendy elderflower liqueur with a St Germain and Cranberry Cocktail.
- Sip the classic cranberry orange combo in the Madras, or add bubbles and fruit for a refreshing Vodka Spritzer.
- Layer it with pineapple in a Bay Breeze Cocktail.
