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Fizz and flavour: drinks writer and his mom review boozy options to celebrate Mother’s Day

There’s no holiday more closely associated with brunch than Mother’s Day, and there’s no drink more closely associated with brunch (other than coffee, maybe) than a mimosa.

And while a mimosa is a relatively simple drink to make — sparkling wine and orange juice, combined in whatever proportions Mom sees fit — maybe you don’t have time to be fiddling with cocktails, or the notion of serving up house-made cocktails in addition to Mother’s Day grub is just too overwhelming.

With that in mind, I figured I’d test drive a half dozen premade cocktails (or “refreshment beverages,” as they’re sometimes called) that would work best with brunch. But in order to really get a grasp on what would or wouldn’t work for Mother’s Day, I figured I’d recruit a guest taster whose opinion I value over anyone else’s — my mom.

Gail Cabana-Coldwell (that’s my mom, in case that wasn’t clear) is no novice when it comes to reviewing things for newspapers. In addition to being a current Free Press book reviewer (particularly on all things nautical and Royal Family-related), my mom has also written for both of Winnipeg’s daily papers on all matter of topics and, in her time, has reviewed albums, ballet, rock concerts and, perhaps most pertinently, was the anonymous restaurant reviewer dubbed the Phantom Gourmet for that other local daily rag back in the 1980s.