Buck’s Fizz
A Buck’s Fizz is two parts champagne to one of orange juice: 50ml cold, freshly squeezed orange juice in a chilled flute, topped slowly with 100ml brut champagne, with no garnish. At two to one it is drier than a Mimosa and tastes first of the wine, and Difford’s Guide gives that drier two to one as the Buck’s Fizz ratio. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, says it is thought to have been created in 1921 by Malachi “Pat” MacGarry, the bartender at Buck’s Club in London, which opened in June 1919, on only sketchy evidence. It is sometimes said that some older recipes list grenadine and that the club’s own recipe holds extra ingredients known only to its bartenders; we have found no primary record of either. The International Bartenders Association treats Buck’s Fizz as another name for its Mimosa, at equal parts orange juice and prosecco. Ours keeps the British two to one. A flute holds about 1.2 UK units.
Glassware: Champagne Flute
Garnish: None
Ingredients
100ml
Brut, and cold. At 100ml it is two-thirds of the drink and the main thing you taste, so it matters more than in a Mimosa. A dry crémant or cava does the same job for less; a sweet sparkling wine makes the drink cloying.
50ml
Squeezed the same day, strained of pulp and chilled. At 50ml it colours and sweetens the wine without taking over. Carton juice tastes flat against champagne.
Instructions
Squeeze the orange juice the same day and chill it.
Pour 50ml of orange juice into a chilled flute.
Top slowly with 100ml of cold champagne, in stages as the foam allows.
Serve straight away, without a garnish.
Our version
The IBA lists Buck’s Fizz as another name for its Mimosa: 75ml orange juice and 75ml prosecco. Ours keeps the two to one ratio Difford’s Guide gives for the Buck’s Fizz, 100ml champagne to 50ml orange juice.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Pour the juice first, then the champagne in two or three stages as the foam allows. Champagne poured onto juice foams hard; poured slowly down the side of a tilted flute, it settles and keeps its bubbles. Chill everything: the juice, the bottle and the flutes. Nothing in the glass is shaken or iced, so whatever temperature they start at is the temperature you drink. At two to one the wine is most of what you taste. It need not be expensive, but it should be a brut you would drink on its own.
Behind the Buck’s Fizz
Flavour Profile
Buck’s Club, 1921
Difford’s Guide says the drink is thought to have been created in 1921 by Malachi “Pat” MacGarry, the bartender at London’s Buck’s Club, and gives the proportion as two parts champagne to one of orange juice, which makes it a wine drink with orange in it rather than juice with wine in it.
Harry MacElhone’s Barflies and Cocktails of 1927 prints the Side-Car with the note “Recipe by MacGarry, the popular bartender at Buck’s Club, London”, which puts the same barman at the club.
Buck’s Fizz or Mimosa
The Mimosa is the same pairing at equal parts, and the IBA lists Buck’s Fizz as another name for it. Difford’s Guide keeps them apart by ratio and by ice, as do we, the Mimosa softer and juicier, the Buck’s Fizz drier and more plainly a wine drink.
Buck’s Fizz and Mimosa side by side
Buck’s Fizz (ours)
- Wine
- 100ml champagne
- Orange juice
- 50ml
- Ratio
- Two to one
- UK units
- 1.2
Mimosa (ours, and the IBA’s)
- Wine
- 75ml prosecco
- Orange juice
- 75ml
- Ratio
- Equal parts
- UK units
- 0.8
| Drink | Wine | Orange juice | Ratio | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buck’s Fizz (ours) | 100ml champagne | 50ml | Two to one | 1.2 |
| Mimosa (ours, and the IBA’s) | 75ml prosecco | 75ml | Equal parts | 0.8 |
The Secret Ingredient
It is sometimes said that the club’s recipe holds additional ingredients known only to its bartenders, and that some older recipes list grenadine. The grenadine may be a trace of it. We have found no primary record of either.
A few drops of grenadine are a harmless flourish. The drink does not need them.
Choosing the Wine
At two to one there is little juice to hide behind, so the wine shows. Brut champagne is the classic choice. A dry crémant or cava makes much the same drink for less, and prosecco makes a softer, fruitier one.
Avoid anything labelled demi-sec or doux. With orange juice on top of the wine’s own sugar, it tastes like squash.
Pouring for a Table
Make it glass by glass. Line up chilled flutes, pour the juice into each, then top with champagne in stages as the foam settles. A 750ml bottle at 100ml a glass fills seven flutes, with a little left over.
How Strong It Is
With 100ml of champagne at our working figure of 12% ABV, a Buck’s Fizz holds about 1.2 UK units, less than a 125ml glass of the same wine. At a morning occasion, refills are easy to lose count of.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a Buck’s Fizz and a Mimosa?
How much champagne to orange juice in a Buck’s Fizz?
How strong is a Buck’s Fizz?
Why is it called a Buck’s Fizz?
Was there a secret ingredient in the original?
Can I use prosecco instead of champagne?
Can I make Buck’s Fizz in a jug?
Sources.
Checked between 18 October and 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Buck’s Fizz and Mimosa cocktails: history and recipes” (secondary source: Buck’s Fizz is two parts champagne to one part orange juice, served without ice in a flute or coupe; the Mimosa is equal parts, over ice; thought to have been created in 1921 by Malachi “Pat” MacGarry at Buck’s Club (opened June 1919), on sketchy evidence; the Savoy Cocktail Book 1930).
- Harry MacElhone (1927), Internet Archive, “Barflies and Cocktails” (primary source: the Side-Car Cocktail, “Recipe by MacGarry, the popular bartender at Buck’s Club, London”).
- IBA, “Mimosa” (official specification: 75ml orange juice, 75ml prosecco; “Also known as Buck’s Fizz”).
- Eurovision Song Contest (eurovision.com), “Dublin 1981” (official page: winner Bucks Fizz, Making Your Mind Up, United Kingdom, 136 points).
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Mimosa
A Mimosa is 75ml of fresh orange juice poured into a cold flute, then 75ml of cold prosecco added slowly and stirred once. About 0.8 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures, and the IBA lists an orange twist as an optional garnish. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, says many books credit Frank Meier at the Ritz in Paris in 1925, though it puts the creation between 1921 and 1923, and the name is commonly said to come from the bright yellow flowers of the mimosa tree; we have found no primary record. The IBA also lists it as Buck’s Fizz. Difford’s defines the Buck’s Fizz as two parts champagne to one of juice and thinks it was created in 1921 by Malachi “Pat” MacGarry, the bartender at Buck’s Club in London. Half the glass is juice, so squeeze it the same day. Carton juice makes a dull Mimosa.
Champagne Cocktail
A Champagne Cocktail is a sugar cube soaked with two dashes of Angostura and dropped into a chilled flute, then 10ml of cognac and 90ml of cold champagne poured slowly down the side, with a lemon twist expressed over the top. It is never stirred. About 1.5 UK units. The Oxford Companion says the first description of a Champagne Cocktail with ice and bitters-saturated sugar comes from an American bar in Panama in 1855, and that Jerry Thomas published the recipe in 1862, with no brandy or cognac. Later recipes added cognac, and the IBA now lists 10ml, with a few optional drops of Grand Marnier. With the cognac in, it matches the first appearance in print of the cocktail formula and name that the Oxford Companion cites, from a Hudson, New York, newspaper of 13 May 1806: spirits, sugar, water and bitters, with the wine doing the work of the water. The cube is the reason to make it. It sits at the bottom of the flute, dissolving slowly and sending up a thin line of bubbles, so the first sips are dry and the last are sweeter and more spiced.
Bellini
A Bellini is 100ml prosecco over 50ml white peach purée: the purée goes into a chilled flute, the cold prosecco is poured over in stages and folded in, and it is served straight away. About 1.1 UK units. It sits on the IBA’s Contemporary Classics list at these measures. The Oxford Companion says Giuseppe Cipriani, the founder of Harry’s Bar in Venice, created it around 1945, and named it for the fifteenth-century Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini because its peach hue resembled one characteristic of his work. Cipriani’s own Bellini page gives 1948 and says he was inspired by that painter. White peaches decide it. They are paler, more floral and usually milder than yellow ones, and they give the soft blush; yellow fruit makes a sharper drink of the wrong colour.
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Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026