Buck's Fizz

Review:

A very simple cocktail, but when made with freshly squeezed oranges straight from the refrigerator this is a great brunch drink. (Be sure to fine strain your orange juice.)

History:

The Buck's Fizz shares the same two ingredients as a Mimosa, and apart from the proportions of those ingredients and the Mimosa being served over ice, there is little to divide the two cocktails, even their birth year. But, although there is only sketchy evidence to back up the believed origins of either, their chronological appearance in cocktail books suggests the Buck's Fizz outdating the Mimosa.

The Buck's Fizz is thought to have been created in 1921 by Malachi "Pat" MacGarry, the bartender at London's Buck's Club (which opened in June 1919) and is listed as one of 21 "fizzes" in Harry Craddock's 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book with the proportions "¼ glass orange juice, fill with champagne" in a "long tumbler". Tellingly, Harry doesn't list a Mimosa but does include a "London Buck Cocktail", also served in a "long tumbler" with "1 lump ice, 1 glass dry gin, the juice of 1/2 lemon and 1 split [small bottle] of ginger ale."

This mention of the London Buck (also known as a Gin buck or a Ginger Rogers) cocktail serves as a reminder that a Buck is an old name for a family of mixed drinks lengthened with ginger ale. The Buck's Fizz was a Fizz made at the Buck's Club and lives in the Fizz family, not the Buck family of drinks. The Buck's Fizz has confused some into mistakenly thinking that a Buck is a drink that can be lengthened with ginger ale OR citrus juice, but a Buck is made with ginger ale or ginger beer, NOT citrus juice. Buck is the Christian name of the Buck's Fizz, not the family name/ surname.

Frank Meier's 1936 Artistry of Mixing Drinks also lists the Buck's Fizz as one of 32 Fizzes, indeed, it's the first known book to list both the Buck's Fizz and the Mimosa.

BUCKS FIZZ
In shaker: the juice of one-half Orange, one-half teaspoon sugar, one-half glass of Gin; shake well, strain into fizz glass, fill with Champagne.

Frank Meier, Artistry of Mixing Drinks, 1936

Both The Savoy Cocktail Book and Frank Meier's book also include a cocktail called a Valencia which is similar to both a Mimosa and a Buck's Fizz but is shaken and has the addition of "one-half glass of Apricot Brandy."

The next notable mention of the Buck's Fizz is in W. J. Tarling's 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book with the recipe, "Pour into a tumbler. Two tablespoons orange juice. Fill with champagne." Tarling makes no mention of the Mimosa

The 1953 The U.K.B.G. Guide to Drinks also lists the Bucks Fizz with a recipe that specifies a "long glass" and the instruction to "add 1 cube ice". However, across these various book appearances, the consensus is that the Bucks Fizz has a higher proportion of champagne than the Mimosa and is served straight-up while the Mimosa should be served with ice.

In the UK, where the Buck's Fizz originated, it was huge during the 1980s, to the extent that pre-mixed bottled versions appeared in supermarkets, where they are still sold to this day. The Buck's Fizz also became the fashionable wedding day drink-on-arrival, made en masse by caterers with warm cartoned concentrate orange juice. Indeed, bad orange juice and cheap sparkling wine have been responsible for the near death of both the Buck's Fizz and Mimosa.

Nutrition:

One serving of Buck's Fizz contains 87 calories