Moscow Mule – The classic cocktail with three ingredients

The classic Moscow Mule - quick and delicious!

Moscow Mule was invented in the 40’s and today it is finding its place on more and more bar terraces. It consist of only three ingredients - vodka, ginger beer and lime juice.

It is sparkly, has an impressive and crisp taste, which makes it perfect for enjoying it on summer nights.

Why the name Moscow Mule?

There is a story that this cocktail actually was a part of a marketing trick to encourage vodka, ginger beer and copper mug production, which in the 40’s were not really the most popular products in Amerika.

The story roughly goes like this: in the 40’s of the last century, vodka had a reputation as an unpopular alcoholic drink in the American cocktail scene. Moreover, the Americans were joking that vodka translated from Russian means “terrible”. 

Despite the low interest in this Russian drink, the entrepreneur John G. Martin was brave enough to buy the Smirnoff brand to try his luck in sales. He quickly realized that the Americans are still not attracted to this russian alcoholic drink.

One afternoon in the bar Cock ‘n’ Bull in Los Angeles, Martin complained to the owner of that bar - Jack Morgan, how the vodka sales were going really badly. Morgan had similar problems - he could not raise the interest for ginger beer. An artisan for copper mugs, who happened to be there, listened to their stories and shared his failure in selling copper mugs. After several hours of lamentation and drinking, they decided to solve all their problems together and to invent a new product - the Moscow Mule cocktail that will be served in copper mugs. This idea about a drink served in copper mugs resonated well with Hollywood stars and the cocktail quickly gained popularity.

Nobody can say for sure where the name Moscow Mule came from. It probably came about by accident - Moscow probably because of the tendency to connect vodka with Russia. And “Mule”? Some say that “Mule” was added to the name because the ginger beer adds a “kick of a flavor”.

These stories may only be legends, but one thing we are sure of - this cocktail is extremely refreshing and delicious!