UTAH MULES
You can order a Moscow Mule at Bar-X and The Green Pig Pub in Salt Lake City or at Park City’s Stein Eriksen Lodge and the Bistro at Canyons.
THE RECIPE
Squeeze the juice from half a lime (about 1/2 ounce) into a copper cup; drop in the lime shell. Add ice cubes, then add 2 ounces of vodka and fill the cup with ginger beer. If you must substitute ginger ale for the ginger beer, mix in a small amount of fresh, grated ginger to give it a little burn.
THE NAME
“Buck” and “mule” are old-fashioned names for mixed drinks using ginger ale or ginger beer, cirus juice and liquor.
THE MUG
The complicated, contradictory and mostly uninteresting stories about the Moscow Mule’s origin have one thing in common: the celebrity favorite Cock ‘n’ Bull restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in L.A., whose proprietor was Jack Morgan, president of Cock ‘n’ Bull, a brewwer of ginger beer. The original Cock ‘n’ Bull was an English pub, which traditionally served beer and ale in copper mugs, so presumably one was handy.
You can find copper mugs online, but they’re quite expensive, which explains why many bars require a deposit on the mug when you order.
GET ‘EM HERE
Sertodo hammered copper mugs, $116/set of four, amazon.com
WHAT’S THE DIF? GINGER BEER vs. GINGER ALE
Ginger beer was originally a fermented alcoholic beverage made from ginger and water. Now it gets its bubbles from carbonization. It is much stronger, darker and spicier in flavor than mild, sweet ginger ale, and sometimes it’s less fizzy.
FeverTree Ginger Beer, $6 per 4-pak, Harmons, SLC
This post was originally published on utahstyleanddesign.com.
