The Moscow Mule arguably one of the most famous mule cocktails ever made. But what you might not know is that there are literally dozens of variations. From Paris to New Zealand and everywhere in between, there is a Mule for everyone…
The idea of a mule is very simple… Top with Ginger Beer/Ale (whichever one you prefer). Of course you need other ingredients but if you take a gander at the recipes below you’ll see that those depend on the theme…
It’s important to keep the ratio’s in these drinks as they are written. Use this conversion: 1 measure = 25ml (UK) or 1oz (USA). This way the balance of the drink remains as it should be and everyone is happy!
Onto the cocktails:
10) Berry Nice
Recipe:
2 measures of Raspberry Vodka
¼ measure Chambord (Raspberry Liqueur)
½ measure Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
8 Blackberries
Top up with Ginger Beer/Ale
Method:
1) Add the vodka and blackberries and muddle well.
2) Add the Chambord liqueur and lemon juice.
3) Shake over ice and strain into an ice filled glass.
4) Top up with Ginger Beer/Ale and garnish with a blackberry and lemon peel skewer.
9) Yule Mule
Recipe:
2 measures Light (white) Rum
2.5 measures Cranberry Juice
Top up Ginger Beer/Ale
Method:
1) Build this cocktail in an ice-filled Collins glass.
2) Garnish with a Lime wedge.
This cocktail is a simple Caribbean style Mule. Made ideally at Christmas, so you can use cranberries when they are in abundance (here in the UK at least) for a fresher crisper drink, this cocktail is perfect for the summer too. Refreshing and crisp this drink is simple yet flavourful. Try experimenting with your favourite aged/dark rums for a deeper taste.
8) Blackberry Mule
Recipe:
1.5 measures Vodka
½ measure Crème de Mure (Blackberry Liqueur)
½ measure Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice
6-8 fresh blackberries
Top up Ginger Beer/Ale
Method:
1) Muddle the blackberries with the vodka in a shaker tin.
2) Then add the crème de mure and lime juice.
3) Shake well over ice and double strain (to keep out the seeds) into an ice filled Collins glass.
4) Top up with Ginger beer/ale.
5) Garnish with 2 plump blackberries.
A great UK summer cocktail, the Blackberry Mule comes to fruition around the same time as the blackberry bushes bless us with their bounties. Fresh blackberries mean a fresher drink. Sure you can shell out for some supermarket blackberries (the ones that have probably gained more air miles that you will in a couple of years) or you could go blackberry picking and gather some for yourself. Over here in the UK berry picking is still a pastime. I even tried my hand at it when I was younger. There are plenty of farmers that take on hands to help (as volunteers mainly – but they do let you keep the odd punnet or two). It’s a fun day out and you get to enjoy your spoils with a nice splash of your favourite spirit.
Oh right, one last thing, this cocktail tastes just as great using any spirit. Try it with some of these if you’d prefer: Tequila, Rum, Gin & Cachaca.
7) The Mordor Mule
Recipe:
1.5 measures ‘42 Below’ Vodka
½ measure Lime Juice
¼ measure Agave Nectar
1 whole Kiwi (skinned & chopped into chunks)
Top up Ginger Beer/Ale
Method:
1) In a mixing tin muddle the Kiwi chunks, lime juice and sugar syrup.
2) Add the vodka and fill with ice.
3) Shake and strain into an ice filled Collins glass
4) Top up with ginger beer/ale
5) Garnish with a Kiwi wheel (leave skin on this one).
This Middle Earth (New Zealand) themed Mule is something a little different. It combines one of the best vodkas in the world (from NZ of course) with a New Zealand Kiwi fruit and then using the ginger beer/ale as a top up. This cocktail, as a result, is extremely refreshing and crisp and great for those summer evenings when you want something a little different.
Again the room for tweaking lies with the fruit. There are several other edible species of Kiwi fruit available that are different to the commercial one we are all accustomed to. If you want to try them, and they’re available in your country, start here; on the Wikipedia site and have a search around.
Oh and not to mention this is one of my very own recipes so please let me know how it goes down!
6) Parisian Mule
Recipe:
2 measures Vodka
1 measure Crème de Cassis
1 measure Lime Juice
Top up Ginger Beer/Ale
Method:
1) In an ice filled shaker add the vodka, crème de cassis and lime juice.
2) Shake well and strain into an ice filled Collins glass.
3) Top up with Ginger Beer/Ale and serve with a lime wedge as garnish.
This is a recipe I’m really proud of, back during the early days of this blog I catered cocktails for a friend of a friend’s birthday party. One of those cocktails was a pitcher sized serving of a Parisian Mule. Now various other mules do exist and probably more appropriately named too. But this cocktail is special to me, and when I think of Crème liqueurs I think of France, of the romance capital of the world: Paris. Now the other recipe I have found for a Parisian Mule contains Cognac, a fine vintage too I might say, and it is a delicious drink. But rather than fill up another spot for a cocktail of the same name, if you follow this link for what I have dubbed the Imperial Parisian Mule you’ll find the original website for it. Whichever taste of Paris you prefer, you will not be disappointed.
5) Moscow Mule
Recipe:
2 measures Vodka
½ measure Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice
3 dashes of Angostura Bitters
Top up Ginger Beer/Ale
Method:
1) Build this cocktail in an ice filled mixing glass.
2) Start with the Vodka, then lime juice and bitters.
3) Stir well and strain into an ice filled Collins glass.
4) Top up with your preference of Ginger Beer/Ale.
5) Garnish with a Lime Wedge and serve with straws.
This classic cocktail is all about the kick. Refreshing and crisp (the lime and ginger pair exceptionally well) it lulls you into a full sense of security, then after about 3 or 4 you try and stand and remember the vodka; It’ll sit you right back down again, I assure you. Perfect for those summer evenings when you just don’t want to get up the next morning. Still they taste great and a couple wouldn’t hurt…Right? Right.
4) Saigon Sling via Bar Blue
Recipe:
45ml Bombay Sapphire Gin
15ml Krupnik Honey Liqueur
30ml Pineapple Juice
2 dashes Peychauds Bitters
Top up Ginger Beer/Ale
Method:
1) Add the Gin, Honey Liqueur, Pineapple juice and bitters into an ice filled shaker and shake well for about 20-30 seconds.
2) Strain into an ice filled sling glass (see glass in the picture).
3) Top up with ginger beer/ale and garnish with a slice of lemon.
This cocktail was first tasted by me when I went to London Bridge’s Bar Blue (on the way to the Cointreau Fizz Garden event). Combining the floral flavours of Bombay Sapphire Gin, and the sweetness of Krupnik Honey Liqueur, this cocktail is a borderline Mule, and therefore a controversial choice, but it is just so good I could not leave it out. It is just a wonderfully refreshing drink everyone needs to try at least once.
3) Anejo Mule
Recipe:
1 measure Light Rum
½ measure Dark Rum
½ measure triple Sec
¼ measure Fresh Lime Juice
2 dashes of Angostura Bitters
Top up Ginger Beer/Ale
Method:
1) Add all the ingredients (except the ginger beer/ale obviously) and shake well over ice.
2) Strain into an ice filled Collins glass and top up with Ginger beer/ale.
3) Garnish with a lime wedge sat on the rim of the glass*.
Now I love all types of rum. Whether it’s the classic white stuff or the darker, aged stuff, it doesn’t bother me as long as it tastes great (which most of them do). Usually I find it hard to choose between light and dark rum, but this drink puts a line through this conundrum with a simple answer: Use both…
*this allows for your friends/customers/drinkers to add a splash more lime juice if they would like.
2) Caribbean Mule
Recipe:
1.5 measures Light Rum
½ measure Spiced Dark Rum
½ measure fresh squeezed lime juice
½ measure guava juice
1 measure pineapple juice
3 dashes of angostura bitters
Method:
1) Combine the first 5 ingredients in an ice filled shaker and shake well.
2) Strain into an ice filled sling glass and top up with ginger beer/ale.
3) Garnish with a pineapple wedge and cocktail cherry.
4) Serve with straws.
Similar to the Anejo Mule, this cocktail adds a little Caribbean flavour to the mixture with some exotic fruit juices. This does lengthen the drink somewhat and water down the rum a little, but it makes it a little more beach specific and refreshing. The ginger beer/ale adds a splash of crispness and heat that is really balanced well with the sweetness of the juices.
Give it a go and close your eyes, you’ll be hearing waves roaring at your feet and feel a tan coming on before you know it…
1) Mexican Mule
Recipe:
2 measures good quality Tequila
¾ measures fresh squeezed lime juice
¼ measure agave nectar
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Top up Ginger Beer/Ale
Method:
1) Add the tequila, lime juice, agave nectar and bitters into an ice filled shaker and shake well.
2) Strain into a tall glass filled with crush ice.
3) Top up with ginger beer/ale and garnish with a lime wedge.
This cocktail is my number one by a country mile. This cocktail takes everything great about the classic Moscow mule and just spins it on its head, in a way only the Mexicans can, with TEQUILA!
Now a couple of months ago it was Cinco de Mayo (5th of May) which celebrates Mexico’s ways in all their glory, although it’s a more United States specific celebration, which means Tequila and all things Mexican are centre stage.
And then there was National Tequila Day (NTD) which was as recent as last week! Again it’s largely an American ‘Holiday’ (I’m starting to notice a theme here, are you?) upon which much more Tequila is consumed (naturally). Now I did a post on the 24th July (NTD) and this was based on the craft Tequila George Clooney has co-financed, along with his life-long buddy Rande Gerber and this is the perfect tequila to use here. If you cannot get a hold of it (I know I can’t) then use the best quality Tequila you can find (that means 100% Agave people!).
This drink, as already stated, turns the classic vodka based version on its head and creates a rather delicious monster. Tequila mixes well with lime, we all know this, but it also mixes fantastically well with Ginger Beer/Ale. So combining the 3 sounds perfect right? Right.
“Never ever mix tequila with lime and ginger beer/ale” – Said no one. Ever.
So mix one of these up, chuck a poncho and a fake moustache on and put the maracas down, Sit back on your hammock and enjoy the sunset – beach, sunset, fake moustache, maracas & poncho not included.
finally enjoy this lovely couple of Mules, can you guess their names? Hint: Even I’m not sure of their names, so good luck…
And the twins here…
The Fervent Shaker 