Moscow Mule.
Three ingredients, no shaker, one copper mug. Two things decide whether it works: whether the ginger beer actually contains ginger, and whether the lime comes out of a press.
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Davos Vodka | 5 cl |
| Lime juice, fresh | 2 cl |
| Ginger beer | 10 cl |
Fill the mug with ice until it stands above the rim. Vodka and lime juice over the top, then let the ginger beer run in along a bar spoon. Lift once from the bottom, do not stir. Lime wheel on the rim.
This one is built in the glass. Shaking drives the carbonation out of the ginger beer, and the carbonation is what carries the ginger. If you need to prepare ahead, pre-batch the vodka and lime and top up at service.
- SpecValue
- Glasscopper mug or highball
- Icein the glass, above the rim
- Garnishlime wheel, mint
- Methodbuilt
- In the glass17 cl · 11.8 % ABV
- Time1 minute
The maths: 5 cl at 40 % is 2 cl of pure alcohol. In 17 cl of liquid that is 11.8 % ABV. The figure drops while the drink stands, because the ice in the glass keeps melting.
The one place almost everyone saves money.
Ginger ale is a flavoured soda. Ginger beer is brewed with ginger root, sometimes fermented, and brings heat rather than just sweetness. The whole drink sits between the two.
The test is on the ingredient list. If ginger shows up as extract or flavouring, the drink stays sweet and flat. If ginger is listed as an ingredient with a quantity, you feel it at the back of the throat and not only on the tongue.
How much ginger a bottle really holds is something most producers do not declare. That number is missing, so the only test is the glass: same vodka, same lime, two ginger beers side by side.
At events in the distillery we top up with ginger beer, not ale. Guests notice the difference before anyone explains where it comes from.
Not marketing. Thermal conductivity.
Copper conducts heat roughly four hundred times better than glass, about 400 watts per metre kelvin against about 1. The mug takes on the temperature of the drink almost instantly. From the outside it therefore feels as cold as the contents, and your hand reports cold before the first sip confirms it.
The same holds in the other direction. A copper mug in a warm hand passes that warmth inwards just as fast. Hold it by the handle or the rim and the drink stays cold longer.
A Mule works in a glass too. What is missing is the cold at the hand and the picture that made the drink famous.
The Davos line, three ways into the mug.
Same spring in the Sertig valley, three different drinks. The vodka is the spec above; the gin and the alpine herb liqueur are the two turns we take most often ourselves.
Davos Vodka
Grain vodka cut with water from the Sertig valley near Davos. Neutral in flavour, and that is exactly what a Mule needs: ginger sets the heat, lime sets the acidity, the vodka sets the strength and nothing else.
CHF 39 — to the bottle
Davos Gin
Distilled from the cherries left over from the Rötali liqueur made in Davos, with juniper and alpine herbs on top. In the mug that gives a Mule with fruit underneath the ginger. Swap vodka for gin and you have landed on a Munich Mule.
CHF 54 — to the bottle
Davos Alpine Herb Liqueur
2 cl into the finished Mule, vodka back to 4 cl. The herbal bitterness stands next to the ginger and takes the edge off the lime. The drink turns darker and a good deal longer.
CHF 29 — to the bottleLos Angeles, 1941.
John G. Martin had just bought Smirnoff for Heublein and could not sell the vodka. Jack Morgan ran the Cock ’n’ Bull on Sunset Strip and made ginger beer that was not moving either. Two stock problems turned into a drink.
Martin then photographed bartenders holding the bottle and the copper mug, two shots per bar, one left behind and one carried to the next. In 1941 that was a modern campaign, and it is the reason the mug belongs to the drink today.
Where the mugs originally came from is told differently by different sources, usually involving a woman named Sophie Berezinski and a consignment of copperware nobody wanted. None of that is documented. What is documented is that the mug was part of the advertising before it became part of the recipe.
Four things that make the difference.
Ice above the rim
A half-filled mug melts faster than a full one. More ice means less meltwater, not more. That holds for every built drink and is the mistake made most often.
Two centilitres of lime, pressed
A squeezed wedge gives about one centilitre and a different amount every time. The acidity is what holds the drink up against the sweetness of the ginger beer. Measure it and you get the same Mule twice.
Pour along the bar spoon
The ginger beer runs down the spoon into the glass instead of dropping in freely. That keeps the carbonation. A free pour drives it out in two seconds.
Slap the mint, do not muddle it
Clap the sprig once in your palm and lay it on the ice. Muddled mint turns bitter and floats through the mug in shreds.
Three turns off this road.
Munich Mule
Gin instead of vodka. With Gentleman's Gin the juniper stands beside the ginger; with Gin de Bâle spruce needle joins in. Both hold up against ginger beer, which most citrus-led gins do not.
Gin-Gin Mule
Audrey Saunders' version from New York: gin, lime, sugar syrup and mint shaken, then topped with ginger beer. A Mule with the structure of a Mojito and considerably more work.
Lumberjack's Mule
Our Lumberjack's is an Old Tom sweetened with maple syrup. With ginger it makes the warmest version of the drink, right for October through February. Take the lime back to 1.5 cl or it tips over.
Without alcohol
Ginger beer, 2 cl lime, a dash of sugar syrup, plenty of ice. It works because heat and acidity carry the drink rather than the alcohol. It always stands alongside at our events.
If you like ginger, smell it on its own first.
In the workshop you blend your own gin from more than twenty single distillates. Ginger is one of them, and people underestimate how far forward it sits in a blend.
- Three hours, every Thursday from 17:30
- CHF 180 per person
- 0.5 l of your own gin, the recipe is yours
- Aktienmühle distillery, Gärtnerstrasse 46, Basel
More on the Espresso Martini, the Gin Tonic, the Negroni or all our serves.