Pour Yourself a Drink: The Moscow Mule

Photo credit: James Ransom, Food52

Look at the calendar. You’re one, two, three days away from April, with all its promises of being “in like a lion, out like a lamb,” being done.

In the hopes that the lamb side of this fine month will materialize soon, here’s a one, two, three ingredient cocktail to help you make it through till April 1st.

The Moscow Mule is nearly impossible not to love. Vodka, lime, ginger beer: Clean and easy, with just enough gingery edge—ok, kick, as its name implies—to soften the end of a week or, yes, a month. The cocktail became popular during the mid-1940s, when an ambitious liquor marketing man went bar-to-bar with a camera, taking Polaroids of bartenders holding a bottle of Smirnoff vodka in one hand and a copper mug (the classic vehicle for serving the drink) in the other. He’d give them one Polaroid, keep a second copy for himself, and show it to the gent behind the stick at the next bar to illustrate what the competitors were selling. Brilliant.

You, fortunately, don’t have to think so hard. As long as you have lime and vodka on hand, you can snag a bottle of ginger beer at the deli or supermarket on the way home. It’s the ideal in-between-weather cocktail. Three, two, one: Go pour yourself a drink.

Moscow Mule
From Food52
Serves 1

1 part vodka
2 parts ginger beer
Lime wedge, for garnish

1. Fill a glass with ice, crushed or cubed. Add vodka. Top with ginger beer and squeeze in some lime.