Moscow Mule

Classic Moscow Mule Recipe

When it comes to making cocktails at home, we want simple, quick and delicious. Thankfully, this classic Moscow Mule recipe is all of those things! Like many of our favorites (hello, Mint Juleps!) you barely need a recipe for this easy cocktail. But we’re going to give you one for good measure along with tons of tips and tricks for making the best Moscow Mule ever.

Moscow Mule Ingredients

• Vodka

• Lime

• Ginger beer. Historically, ginger beers were fermented alcoholic beverages, but nowadays if a label says “ginger beer” the company is telling you that the drink inside is more spicy and assertive than a drink labeled “ginger ale.” Ginger beers’ assertiveness is what you want for making a Moscow Mule.

• Lots of ice

• Fresh ginger

How to Make a Moscow Mule

1. Muddle fresh ginger. That means smash the ginger and lime juice together into the bottom of the highball glass or Moscow Mule mugs with a muddler.

2. Measure the vodka with a cocktail jigger and pour it over the muddled lime and ginger.

3. Fill the mug with crushed ice. We’re getting frosty!

4. Pour in the ginger beer. You can garnish the cocktail with fresh mint or candied ginger if you’d like to.

Tips For Making The Best Moscow Mule

• The best ginger beers for Moscow Mules: Cock ‘n Bull is a classic ginger beer for Moscow Mules, but feel free to use any brand you love. We’ve found a lot of variance in flavor and spiciness brand-to-brand, so you may need to try a few before you find one you love. Reed’s Extra Ginger packs a spicy punch, while Q drinks and Fever Tree are milder but still ginger-y.

• The best vodkas for Moscow Mules: You don’t have to go top shelf here (we honestly wouldn’t — you’re going to drown it in ginger beer and lime juice) but don’t go bottom shelf. Something middle-shelf, like Schmirnoff or Tito’s, would be a fine choice here. If you’re stumped, tell the folks at the liquor store you’re making a Moscow Mule and ask for their help making a choice.

• Invest in a Moscow Mule mug: You don’t have to serve your Moscow Mules in the classic copper Mule mugs, but somehow it really does seem to taste best in one of these glimmering mugs. If you love a Moscow mule, invest in these!

• Need more ginger in your life? Try our Miso-Ginger Chicken Slaw or our Citrus Chicken Rice Bowl with Ginger Jalapeño Sauce.

The History Of The Moscow Mule

Like most classic cocktails, the Moscow Mule is such a simple drink that it’s hard to even imagine that it has much of an origin story. But! We’ll tell the one we’ve heard, so that you’ve got a good story to break out as everyone sips their drinks. The Moscow Mule was supposedly invented in the early 1940s by John G. Martin, a marketing executive at a drinks company that had recently acquired the vodka brand Smirnoff. At the time, most Americans weren’t in the habit of drinking vodka, and he needed an easy, approachable way to sell them on it. So, he teamed up with his friend Jack Morgan, who owned the Cock’n Bull pub in L.A. who had recently come up with a spicy ginger beer recipe that he was eager to sell, too. They put their heads (and drinks) together and the Moscow Mule was born.

Bottoms Up, Pinkies Down

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