The Moscow Mule

What do you get when you mix lime juice, vodka and ginger beer? You get a Moscow Mule, of course!

My friend Barbara at Creative Culinary is celebrating the one year anniversary of The Friday Cocktail on her blog, and we’re all invited to the party! You can follow along on Twitter using the hashtag #FridayCocktail, and check out Barb’s party post round-up at Creative Culinary. She's got some fabulous prizes to give away!

It took some thinking on my part to come up with a new cocktail to try. I was originally going to go with a fall inspired drink, but when it comes to cocktails, I always end up going for the tart, refreshing ones. Give me a Whiskey Sour, Tom Collins or Margarita any day, and I’m happy. Of course, when I’d just turned the legal drinking age, I was all about the sickeningly sweet ones with lots of fruit and paper umbrellas. “Oh, that one’s blue? I’ll take it!” Ha!

When I was just eighteen, and while at a cousin’s wedding, I tried my very first Tom Collins. That one always stayed with me. One--because I got a drink without getting carded, and two--because it was like a tall, cold glass of lemonade with a nice little kick to it.

So for this post I looked around and decided to try the Moscow Mule. What the heck is a Moscow Mule? It’s simple to make and like the above mentioned cocktails, is slightly sweet, tart and refreshing. The story goes that in 1941, John G. Martin, an east coast spirits distributor, and Jack Morgan, owner of the Cock’n’ Bull bar in Hollywood, met in an LA bar and got to talking about Martin’s struggling ginger beer sales. They decided to combine the Smirnoff Vodka that Martin was distributing to the ginger beer and added some lime juice--and the Moscow Mule had arrived. So thanks to John and Jack for giving us this classic cocktail.

Moscow Mule

Serves 1

1/2 oz lime juice (about half of one lime, but have a few on hand if you’re making more)
2 oz vodka
4-6 oz cold ginger beer
Ice

Squeeze juice of 1/2 a lime into a tall glass, and toss the lime in after it.

Add about one cup of ice, the vodka and the cold ginger beer. Stir lightly and serve.

• Again, this one isn’t too sweet, and it’s got a nice hit of tart from the lime juice, and a slight bite from the ginger beer. So refreshing!
• Don’t forget to check out Barb’s party post--there will be giveaways and from what I hear, they’re fantastic--so go have a look!