Mimosas are the best breakfast cocktails: refreshing, crisp, and filled with bubbles. It’s the perfect antidote to all of those syrup-laden carbs and quiches you inhaled only moments before. Mimosas are also a really easy recipe to play around with.  It’s basically an ounce or two of citrus juice mixed with sparkling wine. The only thing to balance is that the citrus juice isn’t always as sweet as orange juice, but other than that, go wild! That’s where this vanilla grapefruit combination came from.  The vanilla rounds out the grapefruit’s natural bitterness nicely, making for a fun twist on this brunch classic.

INGREDIENTS

For 8 servings

1 vanilla bean, scraped

1/2 cup superfine sugar

1 large grapefruit, halved

1 bottle sparkling wine

DIRECTIONS

Combine the scraped vanilla bean and sugar, mixing together with your fingers until the vanilla seeds are dispersed throughout.  Sprinkle half the sugar over the grapefruit halves, place them on a rimmed baking sheet and broil.

Once browned and bursting on top, remove, let them cool a bit, and then juice (you should net about 8 ounces).  Add the remaining sugar to the juice and stir. Combine 1 ounce of juice (2 tablespoons) with a glass of sparkling wine. Enjoy!