Cocktail Hour: The Mimosa

The combination of orange juice and sparkling wine is an American brunch classic, but its arrival on the scene is pretty recent. Anney and Lauren dive into the history of the mimosa -- and the economics of the bottomless mimosa brunch.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Saber. I'm any and I'm lowin
vogel Bam, and today we're talking about the mimosa. The
mimosa in the first Cocktail Hour of twenty nineteen. Yeah,
and it's a good one to start the year off with.
Oh yeah, it's what I started my year off drinking.
It is. Yeah. I had sparkling wine minus the orange

(00:31):
like the next morning. Yeah, technically it had grape fruit
juice and it I guess, I mean anyway, we're getting
into some technicalities, but it's technicalities importance. It is a
tradition in my house, um that we would me and
my mom, no, no one else, but we would drink
mimosas on New Year's Day and we would have the

(00:51):
traditional Southern New Year's meal, Oh, peas and greens and
ham and ham and cornbread. We never do the corn bread, no,
but I I didn't realize until we did that episode
that it makes more sense to have the corn and
in the theme of the meal. I like, bread doesn't
make sense at all, honestly, but it's just delicious. Yes,

(01:15):
always so always. Um. I did go through a very
big mimosa phase in college, very big and when I
was living in China. There was this American themed restaurant
under my apartment, and me and my friends we were
semi regulars there and they had these drinks you could
order American sized, which meant that they came in these

(01:35):
metal buckets, like big metal buckets. And the two drinks
you could get this way where a rum and coke
and a mimosa, and I would drunkenly claim to everyone
that this was my serving of fruit for the day.
The drink responsibly, everybody drink responsibly. Yes, that's a big
theme of this episode. Actually it is. It is um.

(01:58):
And also, I recently to Mimosa Fest in Atlanta. I'm
still horrified by the entire concept of this. Well, it's
really funny because I was hanging out with you and
Dylan before at like a Mimosa brunch to prepare for
Mimosa Fest, and uh, I gotta say, I was pleasantly
surprised by the turnout. It was much more diverse than

(02:19):
I thought I was gonna be. I was gonna be
like college age white people. Um. And there was such
a range of Mimosa theme t shirts it was so good.
My favorite one was obviously the Harry Potter one, it's mimosa,
not mimosa. I feel kind of silly, but I had
no idea that people had such strong opinions and passion

(02:43):
about mimosas. The police had to shut the festival down
because we were dancing too much, too wildly. Uh, you know,
they reopened it. They just wanted everybody to like take
a minute, chill out, skinness to to wild Yeah you can.

(03:06):
You can have too much fun on mimosas. As it
turns out, I suppose that is wise a wise lesson
of this episode. But yeah, that brings us to our question.
Mimoses what what what? That's that's all we have. When

(03:31):
you start drinking the mimosas, then your your sentences get
they do get a little bit shorter. Yeah, yeah, Well.
Mimosa is a cocktail traditionally made with sparkling wine and
orange juice. Uh. The International Bartenders Association says it's equal
parts of each though you can make it, you know,
heavy on either the sparkling or the juice to your preference.

(03:53):
Dry wines are usually used to offset the sweetness of
the juice. There's apparently controversy about whether you should use
pulpy or strained orange juice most a controversy, momosa controversy.
I like a little bit of pulp. I mean, come on,
it's like a salad. Yeah, it's your fruit survey of
the day. I'm on board. Uh. And the result of

(04:14):
all of this is a bright, fresh tasting drink. It's
sit your c and sweet and tingly and a little
bit sour and yeah, yeah, it's nice and refreshing. It is.
The name comes to us thanks to a flower called
what the momosa surprise. It's native to Mexico and Central

(04:34):
and South America, and it's blossom is bright yellow or
orange like the drink makes sense or some other places
I read it's named after the Australian shrub that was
popular among French gardeners, which would make sense that the
name came from there. History mystery, We've said it before,
mysteries of history. But how do you make one? Basically

(04:57):
you mixed orange juice and one okay, all right. Squeezing
fresh juice really does make a difference in the drink
because it is so simple, um, and fresh orange juice
is so lovely. What I like to use. I've got
one of those handheld hinged citrus pressers. Um, it's a
little bit messy, but you can get a good one
for like under fifteen bucks, and they're so easy to use.

(05:18):
You don't have to plug anything into a wall socket.
Strain your juice if you want to chill both it
and a bottle of sparkling wine. For that wine gets
something you wouldn't mind drinking on its own. Yeah, it
just makes sense. It does, it does, um, and again,
probably go for something dry. Um dry as opposed to sweet.
It's not like dry wines have like less water content

(05:39):
or something like that, right, um or I don't know.
If you have a sweeter palette, go for a sweeter sparkle.
That's nice to do what you want, Yeah, do you?
Prosecco's and cobbas tend to be on the dryer side,
unless expensive for the quality. In my personal experience and
reminder of the episode, if you're going for a dry sparkle,

(06:00):
look for the words brute or extra brute on the
label that indicates a dry sparkling wine. Confusingly, sparkling wine
that's labeled dry or extra dry is sweeter than brute
and extra brute. I no one asked me when they
were making these labeled designs, should have I know, you know,
I was recently. I was perusing sparkling wine section at

(06:25):
a local liquor store, which, by the way, the parking
lot for that liquor store had four cops directing traffic
in it before New Year's Day. I like to sit
and watch people just try to park there because I'm
mean spirited. But I forgot we our first episode was
on sparkling wine, and I got confused by the labels.

(06:46):
I was like, I'm pretty sure it doesn't make any sense,
so it's got to be the one I don't think
it is. Would it be ridiculous to look up our
episode notes? Never? Never, I could just type it in
the internet, but no, I'll go back to the research,
back to your own research. Yeah, when you're actually making it. Um,

(07:08):
I like to add the juice to the glass and
then pour the sparkling wine on top of it because
the action of the bubbles kind of stirs it for you.
You don't have to mess with stirring it. Yeah, for
extra chill factor, chill the glass beforehand, or um add
an ice cube. No one's going to tell you not
to people then Yeah. Also, speaking about the price of

(07:30):
sparkling wines and what you're comfortable drinking on its own.
I found this New York Times article about champagne cocktails
and it recommended treading quote a middle path in quality
and price forty fifty bucks. And I was like, that's
your middle that's my goodness, my gracious. There are just

(07:50):
a number of different kinds of humans in this world.
There really are. That's yeah, that's true. I once spent
I bought a bottle. No, I didn't. I got someone
to buy me a bottle of could go. And then
I once spent on one glass of wine. But it

(08:12):
was a glass I've been meaning to try forever, and
I didn't order dinner. I was like, well, no food,
but I will take one glass. And I'm glad I
did drink responsibly. Yeah, I mean one glass. That's absolutely fine.
Spend your money on what you want variations of the boses.
There are so many of these. Yes, insert any fruit

(08:36):
juice variation here. Um At Mimosa Fest, you could go
up and you would say, like, I want pineapple juice,
mango juice. There are so many juices to put into
your mimosa, which then technically is it a mimosa, or
is it a different thing? Is it a balini? Perhaps
a balini which replaces the orange juice with peach juice.

(08:57):
Point seta, which is the holiday take with cranby ay juice.
You've got your grand mimosa with a dash of orange,
the curl of Valencia with apricot liqueur, Add a dash
of bitters, add a dash of an orange tomorrow, like
a kompari or april. If you're making one alcohol free
um with juice and sparkling water, I'd add like a
little bit of lime or lemon juice, and like a

(09:18):
half an ounce of simple syrup to help balance it out.
I don't know, maybe a pinch of salt even like
experiment seem like I like the idea of some salt
in there. Well, what about some amosa numbers? Apparently, as
of according to Google search data, the mimosa was the
most popular cocktail in California, Maryland, North Carolina, and this

(09:40):
our home state of Georgia. Oh really, I don't know
what I would have thought it was, but I wouldn't
have said that momosa according to Google searches. I think
that the popularity of brunch has something to do with that. Yeah,
And speaking of brunch, let's talk about the bottomless mimosa.
Oh my goodness. Uh yeah, these are if you've never

(10:01):
seen it advertised, this is a relatively popular thing that
is advertised on brunch menus like bottomless mimosa as many
as you can put in your face for two hours
for only fifteen dollars, right. Yeah. Um. They are considered
a loss leader by the restaurants that offer them. They
are risking serving mimosas at or even below cost in

(10:21):
order to bring customers in and hopefully then make up
the difference on other menu items, either during that meal
or on repeat visits. Yeah. Um. I I will say
that I've noticed, as someone who's experienced many a bottomless
mimosa brunch, Um, I have noticed in the past couple
of years that it went from bottomless to like five

(10:46):
or you know, like there's a number attached to it now.
It used to be like, have at it, friends, But
then I supposedly realized I think friends had at it,
and I think we did. I was like, I must
get my money's and more, please leave. Yeah. Anecdotally, I

(11:06):
read that it might be more like business peer pressure
than actual business savvy or like any kind of like
noticeable like number profit that is making people offer bottomless mimosas, Like, well,
they're doing it. Heck, we've got to compete with them. Yeah,
and they're really only a thing in the United States,

(11:27):
Canada and the UK other places to have bottomless brunch.
But again, according to Google search data, like, there's not
that much buzz about bottomless mimosas. A. Yeah, I mean
it's fun. I have heard that, and I'm actually probably

(11:50):
this is totally true that you're getting like very weak mimosas.
Oh yeah, I mean it's probably made with like Andrea,
which is fairly bottom of the barrel. I mean, yeah,
you're probably not getting a good sparkling wine, you're probably
not getting good orange juice, but it is bottomless. One
restaurant tour in Michigan reported to eat Her that she

(12:13):
cuts people off after eight glasses. Eight glasses, okay, that's
her number. But if it's okay, never mind, I'm trying
to game the system and I shouldn't. You don't. You
don't have to, you're doing just okay, uh, national most
a day is ma sixt Oh, that's nice, weather's all

(12:36):
spring and at least here in the Northern hemisphere. Um,
there's a Manhattan beer garden named hoff Brow Beer House
in New York City and it has a one hundred
ounce mimosa tower. Okay, I was curious about this. I
needed to look further into it, so I did. Have
you ever seen a beer tower? Yeah, yeah, it's it's
it's that, but they put mimosa in it. Um. You know,

(12:57):
it's a clear glass or plastic cylinder like three to
have feet tall, filled with beverage spiggott at the base.
And if you're bad at ounces like I am, a
single serving of mimosa's probably like six to eight ounces,
So a tower of this size has twelve to sixteen
servings or thereabouts. Enjoy with friends, Brian when Brian O'Connor,

(13:20):
writing for Extra Crispy, said of it, there are societal
obligations involved in finishing a hundred ounces of mimosa. The
novelty begins to fade somewhere near the bottom of the tower,
and your hopes and dreams become a scatter shot as
the trail of orange pulp left behind in the tube
of beverage above your table, one pour at a time,
but even as you feel your constitution fade, your determination increases,

(13:43):
you realize just how valuable your friends are, how much
you love them, and why they're the greatest. I love that. Yeah,
that sounds like the New Year to me. I know right,
I can capsulate. That's what happens. The Momosa perfect ink
for the new Year. It is. And we've got some
history for you. But first we've got a quick break

(14:05):
for a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
thank you. And since it's cocktail hour, it's time for
multiple legends of the who, what, when, where of the Mimosa. Yes,

(14:27):
there are a lot of them. There are. One version
goes that the Mimosa owes this existence to a drink
invented in nineteen one at the Bucks Club in London
called the Bucks Fizz by its inaugural bartender, Pat McGary.
It was a combination of orange juice and sparkling wine,
but the ratio was more skewed towards the sparkling wine
as opposed to the orange juice. Yeah, two parts sparkling

(14:49):
wine to one part juice. And Buck by the way,
refers to a family of drinks that calls for ginger
ale I did not know that. Yeah, and ginger ale
I think, meaning the alcoholic stuff, which, by the way,
has sometimes been called ginger champagne. That sounds so fancy,
I know champagne. Okay, So if we continue along with

(15:11):
this this story, then this drink went on to inspire
a bartender named Frank Meyer at the Ritz Hotel in
Paris to create a drink with equal parts orange juice
and sparkling wine. The mimosa. Yeah, juice of half of
an orange, an equal amount of sparkling wine, and an
ice cube. Oh. Originally came with a nice kid did yeah?

(15:33):
All right. A lot of drink historians doubt that Meyer
invented this drink. A recipe for the mimosa was in
his book of cocktails called The Oddestry of Mixing Drinks,
and the book contained three recipes. But yes, the mimosa
was in there. Each recipe that Meyer claimed to have
invented himself, though, came with a symbol featuring his initials

(15:54):
next to it, and no symbol appears next to the
entry for the mimosa. Yes, the first time a recipe
for the mimosa appeared in print, by the way, was
in Harry Craddocks nineteen thirties the Savoy Cocktail Book, and
I think it was called a Bucks Fizz in there
a Buck's Fizz. But in the London Observer cast out

(16:15):
on the origin of the buck Fizz story to um
quote one London club likes to regard this as a
specialty of the house and calls it Bucks Fizz. But
under its native name of Champagne Orange, it has been
drunk by many a Frenchman whom Bucks would blackball on site.
My goodness, and when I was thinking about it, it
does seem likely to me that the champagne orange, as

(16:37):
it was called, would have come from wine country, and
specifically champagne country in France. I mean, not necessarily, but
it makes sense. Makes sense, yeah, um bartenders that these
swankier establishments might have given them a new name, but
they had probably been enjoyed before then. As with many cocktails,

(16:58):
you know, somebody popularizes it and then they get all
the credit. That's an excellent phase, you just Meanwhile, the
ballini may have originated in the nineteen thirties in Venice
at a place called Harry spar I remember specifically the

(17:21):
first time I had a BILLIONI and I was in
New York and I was traveling with one of my
friends families and she has a you know, we've all
got one the really rich relative. In her case, it
was her aunt and she lives in New York and
like she was so rich. She took us into Tiffany's
to look at that, like that was the place she

(17:41):
took tourists from nowhere, Georgia, let's go look at tiff
And we were like, we don't belong in here. We've
got to get out, shouldn't touch anything, And I said.
She was asking what everyone wanted to eat, and I
was like, pizza or New York and she gave me
this look like we're not going anywhere near what are
you talking about? So we went to this really nice

(18:03):
restaurant um on Central Park and I went to order
of Mimosa and she was like, you should get a
believing and I had no idea what it was, but
I'm like, okay, all right, this lady knows what she's talking.
I felt so fatcy. It was good and I wasn't paying,
so that was extra good. But we go back to

(18:23):
the Mimosa. It's popularity got a significant boost in the
United States during the nineteen sixties thanks to the British Royalty. Okay,
yeah sure. In one the Sydney Morning Herald reported quote,
the Royal family has begun a new fad and drinks.
Among London's fashionable mayfair set, the Queen, the Duke of
Edinburgh and the Queen Mother all have adopted a champagne

(18:46):
cocktail they call the mimosa. And then if they're doing it, yeah,
we gotta do it. And it's good enough for the
Queen Mother. I suppose it's good enough for me. Earl
mon Baton of Burma gets the credit for introducing the
Queen to the drink after a visit to France, and
it did not take long for the rest of the
royal family to start sipping mimosas. However, they weren't really

(19:09):
drinking it in the morning, but it was something that
they would enjoy before they sat down to dinner. As
of nineteen sixty five, food columnist Poppy Cannon wrote, even
in the most sophisticated quarters, you will be considered exceptionally
knowledgeable if you order a mimosa. Oh how times have change.
Mimosa has had another famous fan in director Alfred Hitchcock.

(19:33):
In a nineteen article in The London Express, the author
describes how when he arrived to interview Hitchcock, he was
quote in fine form, drinking mimosas. This article was reprinted
all over the United States, and when Hitchcock paid New
York a visit later that same year, after this article
had circulated, one observer wrote that he quote pause to

(19:54):
serve mimosa cocktails, a mixture of champagne and fresh orange juice.
When I first started research in this episode, one of
the first things that came up, I think, because it's
funny story, lesson and then it's actually true. But that
was that he invented the mimosa in San Francisco in
the nineteen forties. And I find that highly highly unlikely,
But I did find that in more than one place. Yeah, again,

(20:18):
he probably just helped make it popular popular sure. Another
person who helped make it popular was Elizabeth Taylor, who
was said to have broken her fasts with bacon, eggs
and mimosas. Vanessa Redgrave also was described drinking mimosas during
her stay in New York, which an article described as
quote her pet mixture of bubbly and orange juice. French

(20:39):
actress Denise Darcel also spoke to the press about mimosas,
telling the Detroit Free Press in France, we drink mimosa.
Lots of star power behind this drink. Yeah yeah, all
of these names kept coming up, Mary and Davies, Trevor Howard,
I love it. Yeah. And we talked in our episode
around Brunch about how celebrities helped put these drinks in

(21:00):
the zeitgeist as brunch drinks during Prohibition, when they wanted
to drink something in the morning in public that could
be mistaken for juice, not juice with some type of
alcohol and right, right, yeah, give me tomato juice with vodka.
It's a bloody Mary, thank you exactly, or yes, mimosas.
Another theory goes that perhaps the mimosa was invented by

(21:22):
an American film director for Marilyn Monroe in the nineteen forties. Again,
probably not, but she did like them and claimed to
drink them every morning. However, Americans largely took after the
Europeans at first, drinking mimosas in the evenings or even
in nightclubs. Quote the dancing crowd cool themselves off with

(21:44):
mimosas that is not what I want when I'm dancing.
I have done that before, back in my early college
and my my mimosa face, I was mimosas like at clubs.
What a fool anyway, Yeah, we all have to go
through that foolish drink stage. We do mine in bold
mud slides, and I have regrets. I I what did
I like White Russians drivers of mimosas well? Uh, while

(22:11):
we say thanks for being older and wiser. Now we're
going to take one more quick break for a word
from our sponsor and come back with a little bit
more mimosa history, and we're back. Thank you sponsoring, Yes,
thank you. So Okay, how did the mimosa become a

(22:35):
brunch drink? This is a great question. It kind of
seems obvious because we talked about in our Orange episode
Orange juice is a breakfast associated share drink. But it
actually took a bit longer than I might have suspected. Anyway. Yeah.
As of a New York Times article in nineteen sixty six,
the Bloody Mary was the classic brunch cocktail. It did

(23:00):
say that the Bloody Mary had a number of unexpected competitors,
including everything from Double Martini's people got out to some
stuff in the sixties. Well, um to banana dacheries to
the champagne orange. Those are some unexpected contenders, I gotta say.
But if we trace back the mimosa to its brunch

(23:22):
roots in the United States, we find ourselves in New Jersey.
Oh my gosh, we've so rarely found ourselves there. Yeah,
that's true. That's you know what it's about. Time it
was fall. An article from the Asbury Park Press's Nightlife
round Up summed up the journey of the mimosa Leslie.

(23:45):
It started as a favorite of the Caribbean jet set,
then hit elite New York clubs, and now it's featured
at the Shandy Pub Point Pleasant Beach. According to the
Shandy Pub, they introduced themsa into their brunch lineup for
folks that couldn't handle the rough stuff in the morning.
The practice spread slowly at first. In nineteen one, you

(24:05):
could find a champagne brunch at North Bergen's The Point
Cocktail Lounge, which did feature mimosas. And I gotta fill
up the scene here because when I hear The Point
Cocktail Lounge, I'm picturing kind of a you know, it's
going for something really classy, but it just doesn't succeed,
you know what I mean? Maybe this is correct. Then

(24:26):
The Point Cocktail Lounge was a football themed club decked
out with football helmet, lamp shades, and artificial turf. What
a mimosas That's great, isn't it. I want to go
to there. I do too, I when I read that,
because I was just kind of, oh, yeah, Point club. Whatever.
Wait a minute, football lamp shades, ashtoe turf. I gotta

(24:51):
get there now. Okay, back to the sixties. Back to
the late sixties, early seventies. Note that this was the
arrow when brunch was becoming a thing in the United States.
Like social mora's were changing. Prior to the nineteen forties,
it was considered inappropriate for a woman to drink in
public or during the day at all, um, even in

(25:11):
her own kitchen. By the nineteen sixties, brunch cocktails were
acceptable for everyone, and it was an era of great
economic growth for the middle classes. You know, like brunch
was rising up as this like bougie status thing, uh
in places like New York City for example, like a
CNB scene scene um or a relatively affordable indulgence um
see our Brunch episode much to do about brunch from

(25:33):
April of for more on all of that. Yes, the
brunch mimosa truly arrived in New York. By nineteen seventy seven.
A New York Times writer stopped at forty brunch blazes
and Manhattan as part of a piece she was working on,
and she wrote about some of her favorite drinks, including
quote that champagne and orange juice combination known as the

(25:54):
mimosa occasionally laced with brandy as well. M it's a
own this time that mimosas became more and more common
on brunch mean US a cross United States, it has
solidified its place among brunch drinks by the nineteen eighties,
And speaking of the eighties, if we go back to
the UK, the buck Fizz experienced a resurgence of popularity

(26:18):
during that decade thanks to the availability of pre mixed
bottles at supermarkets. Huh man, America has never really gotten
in on the whole pre mixed bottles of stuff thing. No, yeah,
every time I go to Europe and I'm like, wait
a minute, this is just a gin and tonic and
like a okay, sure. In two thousand nine, the Pantone

(26:43):
color of the Year was fourteen O eight for eight
called mimosa. No, you know, I didn't know this was
a thing until everybody made a big deal about it
this year. Oh yeah, no, it's great. I love color
and um that was a really basic thing to say,
hell out into a microphone. I love color. Um no, no,
what I do. I love discussion of color psychology and

(27:06):
in the fashion industry. I think it's super fascinating stuff.
And uh, mimosa was a or it still is. This bright, warm,
kind of egg yolky yellow meant to be hopeful and
radiant quote from their press release. And a time of
economic uncertainty and political change, optimism is paramount, and no
other color expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow. I

(27:28):
have to think about that for a second. I guess.
So I suppose yeah, it's like a sun rising. Yeah, sure, sure, nice,
nice and bright? Yes, well, speaking of maybe not so bright,
speaking of hope and reassuring the bottomless mimosa. Oh goodness, Okay.

(27:52):
According to Google trends, we are living in the peak
popularity of bottomless mimosa, after its use as a search
term had been slowly increasing from the first pings in
January two thousand six. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. To be fair,
the Google Trends data only goes back to two thousand four,

(28:12):
and the way that people use searches certainly can mean
a lot of different things. But it's an interesting data
point that you could use as a discussion of how
people use the Internet to look for French specials or
how many people are serving bottomless but Mosa is either
one or both. Bottomless brunch meanwhile, dates as far back

(28:33):
as Google Trends goes, and we are also living in
the peak of that. What a time to be alive. Indeed, yeah,
both really started picking up around I want to put
it in in here that for three days um in the
New York City Hospitality Alliance caused a mild panic when

(28:55):
it blogged about an obscure bit of legal code have
affected the bottomless Mimosa. As it turns out, the New
York State Liquor Authority technically prohibits unlimited drink specials spanning
a particular period of time for a fixed price. Oh no,
Twitter was mad. Twitter is always mad, But yeah, the

(29:18):
State Liquor Authority came to the rescue with a blessed
and appropriate haste They cited a subcode that allows bottomless
drinks to be sold during events. Oh so brunch is
an event? Yeah, I mean it is kind of if
you can get people together and then you got we
wait in line three hours, right, Yeah, that's an event.

(29:40):
It is. It is. And also, one Manhattan brunch spot
called Prana or Prana Perhaps was put on probation by
the local community board because of its bottomless mimosas, like
its customers were to unruly too frequently when they spilled

(30:03):
out of the restaurant into the surrounding neighborhood. And uh,
eventually the stores liquor license was suspended, and when they
finally got it back, they took bottomless mimosa is off
the menu. Well, it sounds like they learned their lesson,
you know, at least they didn't try again. Um. I

(30:27):
don't know. I'm not sure. I feel like, you know,
lessons being learned is great. It's part of me. That's like,
what a beautiful, wonderful mess. It must have been just epic,
Like how bad did it have to have been to
get approbation. I'm kind of curious bottomless mimosa as. Yeah, yeah,

(30:50):
maybe one of our listeners will maybe they experienced this
this place. This has been a This has been a
fun episode. I I didn't realize any um memories. I
have most of them Harry Potter related um with the mimosa.
Me and my roommate used to watch Harry Potter movies
like two different years, um and we would drink mimosas.

(31:13):
And I actually rewatched all the Harry Potter movies this
year because I have this weird I have to watch
certain movies that have to be my last movie in
my first movie of the new year. And I did
it with the mosas. And I didn't even realize it
that I'm continuing this tradition. And we weren't together, but
we were like texting each other as we watched them together. Sweet.

(31:33):
It was great and I'm getting a little like, oh man,
those were fun times. I mean, I made some mistakes,
but they were fun times. Lessons, lessons being learned, yes,
on all around. But this brings us to the end
of this episode into the beginning of listen. Yes, Brittany wrote,

(32:04):
the reason I'm writing is that I'm reading through the
Little Book of Higga by Mike Wiking. Oh gosh, Danish
um and I came across a short passage about Danish
birthday celebrations. According to him, it is traditional at children's
birthday parties to create a kegman cakeman, which is like
a large gingerbread man made of sweet dough, decorated with

(32:25):
sweets and the Danish flag. Quote. Part of the tradition
is that the birthday boy our girl cuts the throat
of the cakeman while the other kids scream, which is
the most metal thing I've ever heard. And it got
me thinking about birthday food traditions in other countries and cultures.
And I think it'd be such a fun topic for
you guys to do a deep dive in. Yes, that

(32:45):
is amazing that that took a turn right. I was
just like, oh birthday whoa? I am determined to learn
more about this. Okay, cakeman, Cakeman. There's a you know,
like if you did always Sunny in Philadelphia, like Nightmare
Day Man with cake make there's a song parody there,

(33:08):
just waiting, just waiting. Uh. In the meanwhile, Kevin wrote,
I just wanted to say thanks for getting to Latka's recently.
Listening to the episode filled me with memories of Hanaka
with my family and the plates piled high with Latka's. Lauren,
you are right on with the sour cream and apisace combo.
Thank you, though, to be honest, there is no wrong
way to latka. The twist on our family recipe was

(33:30):
that we also used some onions in with the potatoes.
I remember being about eight or nine when I was
able to take my turn on our big old hand
crank grinder that we used to process the onions and potatoes.
At the time, this was a step on par was
sitting at the adult table. That grinder has been in
the family for at least two generations before me, and
as time has passed, the grinder has passed to me.

(33:51):
Now it's my responsibility to make the latkas every year.
I'm also excited to know that there will be a
fourth generation to pass it on to with my new daughter,
who celebrated her first Hanaka this year, and he included
a picture. Yeah and ah, congratulations. Yes, and that is
so sweet. I know, I love it. I love this,
the hand grinder being the equivalent of the yeah table.

(34:13):
Oh no, I see you. It's a They're they're cool
little gidgets. I like them. Muh, I have so much,
so much to explore this world of Latka's very exciting.
Thanks to both of them for writing in. If you
would like to write to us, you can. Our email
is Hello at savor pod dot com. We're also on
social media. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and

(34:36):
Instagram at savor Pod. We hope to hear from you.
Thank you as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thank you to you for listening, and we
hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
You realize just how Vanny be. You're your friends here