History Of The Moscow Mule Cocktail
The Moscow Mule is first cocktail that put vodka on the map in 1941.
As the story goes, John Martin, the man responsible for popularizing Smirnoff visits his buddy Jack at the Cock & Bull in Los Angeles.
See, John had all this vodka that nobody was interested in drinking. And Jack? Well, Jack had all this branded Cock & Bull ginger beer that wasn’t moving either.
Not until these two friends mixed their two problems together in a tin. Add a little lime juice, and the rest is history.
What you’ll need to make a Moscow Mule
- A nice vodka. We recommend Nemiroff. Check out our brands page to find
- Make sure the lime juice is fresh. Citrus juice starts to go bad immediately after you cut into the fruit. Try to never use juice that’s more than a day old
- Fever Tree makes the perfect ginger beer for great Moscow Mule. Their recipe is quite ginger-y, and if curiosity permits, they have many flavoured options to experiment with.
Variations
A Mule can and has been made with just about every base spirit. You have your Dark & Stormy with rum. A Kentucky Mule, with bourbon. A Gin-Gin Mule calls for–yeah that’s right, gin.
All of these delicious variations stem from the lesser known Mamie Taylor, which is a scotch Buck that was invented in 1899. A Buck is a spirit+citrus cocktail with ginger syrup and soda water in place of ginger beer.
Get creative with flavoured ginger beers like strawberry-hibiscus, yuzu, or pink-grapefruit–or make your own ginger syrup and try out a classic Buck.