Moscow mule

Moscow Mule
IBA Official Cocktail
Moscow mule as served at the Velvet Tango Room, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Type Mixed drink
Primary alcohol by volume
Served On the rocks; poured over ice
Standard drinkware copper mug
IBA specified ingredients*
Preparation Combine vodka and ginger beer in a highball glass filled with ice. Add lime juice. Stir gently. Garnish with a lime slice and sprig of mint on the brim of the copper mug.

A Moscow Mule, also known as a Vodka buck, is a cocktail made with a high-quality vodka, a spicy ginger beer, and lime juice, garnished with a slice or wedge of lime. It is usually served in a copper mug.

The cocktail became popular during the vodka craze in the United States, during the 1950s. The name refers to the popular knowledge of vodka as a Russian liquor.

History

The cocktail was invented in 1941 by John G. Martin of G.F. Heublein Brothers, Inc., an American East Coast spirits and food distributor based in Hartford, Connecticut, and "Jack" Morgan, President of Cock 'n' Bull Products (which produced ginger beer) and proprietor of the Cocks 'n' Bulls restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, which was popular with celebrities.[1][2][3][4]

George Sinclair quotes from a 2007 article run in the New York Herald Tribune:

The mule was born in Manhattan but "stalled" on the West Coast for the duration. The birthplace of "Little Moscow" was in New York's Chatham Hotel. That was back in 1941 when the first carload of Jack Morgan's Cock 'n' Bull ginger beer was railing over the plains to give New Yorkers a happy surprise…

The Violette Family helped. Three friends were in the Chatham bar, one John A. Morgan, known as Jack, president of Cock 'n' Bull Products and owner of the Hollywood Cock 'n' Bull Restaurant; one was John G. Martin, president of G.F. Heublein Brothers Inc. of Hartford, Conn., and the third was Rudolph Kunett, president of the Pierre Smirnoff, Heublein's vodka division. As Jack Morgan tells it, "We three were quaffing a slug, nibbling an hors d'oeuvre and shoving toward inventive genius". Martin and Kunett had their minds on their vodka and wondered what would happen if a two-ounce shot joined with Morgan's ginger beer and the squeeze of a lemon. Ice was ordered, lemons procured, mugs ushered in and the concoction put together. Cups were raised, the men counted five and down went the first taste. It was good. It lifted the spirit to adventure. Four or five days later the mixture was christened the Moscow Mule...[5]

The Moscow mule is almost always served in a copper mug. The popularity of this drinking vessel is attributable to Martin, who went around the country to sell Smirnoff vodka and popularize the Moscow mule. Martin asked bartenders to pose with a specialty copper mug and a bottle of Smirnoff vodka, and photographed a Polaroid picture of them. He took two photos, leaving one with the bartender for display. The other photo would be put into a collection and used as proof to the next bar Martin visited of the popularity of the Moscow mule.[6] The copper mug remains, to this day, a popular serving vessel for the Moscow mule, primarily due to tradition and aesthetic reasons.

According to a 1942 Insider Hollywood article, the Moscow mule was most popular in Los Angeles, where it originated.[4] The Nevada State Journal (12 October 1943) reinforced the mule's popularity in reporting: "Already the Mule is climbing up into the exclusive handful of most-popular mixed drinks". It became known as a favorite drink of Reno casino owner William F. Harrah. In his book Beat the Dealer (1964), Edward O. Thorp did not name the Tahoe casino where he thought he had been poorly treated as a card counter. Instead, he wrote, "I went to the bar and had a Moscow Mule", subtly hinting that the location was Harrah's Tahoe, due to Harrah's then well-known proclivity for the drink.

Moscow mule

In popular culture

Literature

Television

See also

References

  1. ↑ Harvey, Steve (August 21, 1987). "Cock 'n' Bull Story Has a Sad Ending : Famous Sunset Strip Restaurant to Close Its Doors After 50 Years". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  2. ↑ Goode, JJ; from Dave Wondrich (November 2005). "Moscow Mule". Epicurious. Retrieved 9 August 2012. J.J. Goode explains the history behind this early vodka cocktail.
  3. ↑ Stoll, Deborah (September 3, 2009). "The Moscow Mule: A Cocktail That's Still Kicking". LA Weekly. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  4. 1 2 Gwynn, Eith (27 December 1942). Insider Hollywood. There is a new drink that is a craze in the movie colony now. It is called 'Moscow Mule'. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ↑ Sinclair, George (January 2007). "Moscow Mule". Thinking Bartender. Archived from the original on 14 March 2007. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  6. ↑ "What's the Story Behind the Moscow Mule and that Copper Mug?". Paykoc Imports. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  7. ↑ Bowman, Donna (March 21, 2016). "Better Call Saul: Bali H'ai". AV Club.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moscow mule.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 28, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.