Moscow Mule

Moscow Mule Recipe (the Original Ingredients)

A traditional Moscow mule is served up in a copper mug, but if you don’t have one handy, don’t fret—the drink really is just as delightful in a glass. (Just prepare to be berated if you share a picture of your glass on social media.)

Ingredients:

  • Vodka, 2 oz
  • Fresh lime juice, ½ oz
  • Ginger beer, 4 to 6 oz
  • Ice

Instructions:

Fill a copper mug or Collins glass with ice. Pour vodka over ice. Fill with ginger beer. Squeeze lime on top and drop the wedge in. Serve with a stirring rod.

Note that ginger beer and ginger ale are not the same things. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can sub ginger ale in a Moscow mule.

Ready for a mule that stands out from the crowd? Try a Unicorn Mule →

 

TIME:

< 5 minutes

SERVINGS:

1 cocktail

DIFFICULTY:

Beginner
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The invention of the Moscow Mule

While we’re breaking hearts, the Moscow mule isn’t from Russia either. It is a good story though.

In the 1940s, a man named John Martin bought a little vodka distillery no one had ever heard of, named Smirnoff. But Americans didn’t drink vodka and he couldn’t sell it. He later learned that his friend, Jack Morgan, who owned a pub in Hollywood, was having a similar problem getting rid of his ginger beer. And wouldn’t you know it? A woman named Sophie Berezinski (a Russian immigrant) had a stockpile of copper mugs.

One great marketing campaign later, the Moscow mule became one of the most popular drinks in America in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Had the term been around half a century ago, the Moscow mule might have made Smirnoff a unicorn company too.

Moscow Mule Mugs

Truth? The copper Moscow mule mug is classic and iconic, but not really required for the Moscow mule. 

Purists will say that copper insulates to keep the drink colder, longer, but copper is a thermal conductor—it transfers heat to colder sources. A Moscow mule feels colder, in your hand and on your lips, in a copper mug because the copper is taking heat out of you and passing it to your drink. If anything, the handle on the mug keeps your drink colder by keeping your warm hand away from the cocktail.

There are also conversations about oxidation between the copper and the vodka enhancing the flavor. It’s true that oxidation can occur (if you’re using a pure copper mug, and not one lined with nickel), but you’re probably not going to notice a difference.

Should you use a copper mug for a Moscow mule? If you have one, absolutely. You wouldn’t put a martini in a rocks glass. The mug is part of the experience: the condensation on the polished metal, the sting of cold on your lips. But if you don’t have a copper mug handy, don’t worry about it. Your mule will be fine in a glass too.