Highballs and long drinks · Vodka · IBA official
Ice-cold copper against your lips, a sharp hit of ginger, then lime and clean vodka underneath. Three ingredients, thirty seconds, and one of the most satisfying highballs ever put together.
1½ oz
vodkae.g. Absolut · Smirnoff · Grey Goose · Ketel One · Belvedere
¼ oz
lime juice
4 oz
ginger beer spicy and well chilled
Garnish: Lime wheel · Ice: Ice cubes
Moscow Mule
Spicy and zesty with a strong ginger bite, bright lime and a clean vodka base. Light, crisp and very refreshing.
The Moscow Mule was born in the United States, not Russia. The usual account places it in Los Angeles around 1941, at the Cock 'n' Bull restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. John G. Martin of Heublein, which had bought the rights to Smirnoff vodka and was struggling to sell it, teamed up with Jack Morgan, the Cock 'n' Bull's owner, who was trying to promote his own ginger beer. The copper mug became part of the package; some versions of the story also credit a woman who was selling copper mugs.
Martin promoted the drink tirelessly, photographing bartenders with a mug and a bottle of Smirnoff, and the Moscow Mule helped turn vodka into a mainstream American spirit in the following decades. The IBA lists it among its Contemporary Classics.
The mug was part of the drink's original promotion in the 1940s. It keeps the drink cold and looks the part, but a highball glass works too.
You can, but the drink becomes much sweeter and milder. Ginger beer gives the characteristic spice.
No. Despite the name, it was created in Los Angeles in the early 1940s.
The perfect sound
Crisp, spicy and cool in a copper mug.
Reader rating
Thanks for rating
Updated:
