RECIPE:
INGREDIENTS:
  • 60ml vodka 
  • 15ml fresh lime juice (about ½ medium lime)
  • 120ml Ginger Beer 
  • Ice
  • Lime wedge, for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS:

Fill a copper mug or regular glass with ice. 

Pour in the vodka and lime juice. Fill the glass with ginger beer and gently stir it with a spoon to mix.

Garnish with a lime wedge

ABOUT

The Moscow mule is a cocktail made with vodka, which has the heat from ginger beer, and sour from lime juice, commonly the mule is garnished with a slice or wedge of lime and served in a copper mug which retains the cold temperature of the serve.

The Moscow Mule in a copper mug garnished with lime

 

A BRIEF HISTORY

The origins of The Moscow Mule has two stories.

The Moscow Mule was invented in 1941 by John Martin of G.F, who worked for Heublein Brothers, a distributor of American East Coast spirits and food.

Joining Martin in the story for the creation of the drink was then president of Cock 'n' Bull Products, a manufacturer of ginger beer and restaurant owner in Hollywood Jack Morgan.

The following is a quote taken from the New York Herald in 1948.

"The mule was born in Manhattan but 'stalled' on the west coast for the duration," the paper read. " The birthplace of 'Little Moscow' was in New York's Chatham Hotel. That was back in 1941 when the first carload of Jack Morgan's Cock 'n' Bull ginger beer was railing over the plains to give New Yorkers a happy surprise."

The story unfolds that Martin, Morgan and president of Heublein's vodka division, Rudolph Kunett, were sitting at this New York bar when the two business men wondered what would happen if they mixed some of their vodka with a bit of Morgan's ginger beer and a squeeze of lemon.

The cocktails taste was well received and less than a week later, the name "Moscow Mule" was born.

This was always accepted as the drinks origins until a new story surfaced in 2007.

This time the founder is Wes Price, the head bartender for Morgan who, according to a 2007 quote he gave the Wall Street Journal, said the drink was born out of a need to clear out old unsold inventory in the bars cellar.

"I just wanted to clean out the basement," Price said of the Moscow Mule. "I was trying to get rid of a lot of dead stock." He stated.

"The first one I mixed was served to actor Broderick Crawford and it then caught on like wildfire."So, there you go, two slightly differing stories as to how the Moscow Mule, which do you believe?