A Moscow Mule, cleverly garnished with crystallized ginger in addition to the traditional lime wedge. Photo courtesy Arch Rock Fish Restaurant | Santa Barbara. |
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WHY IS IT CALLED A MULE?
“Mule” and “buck” are old-fashioned names for a family of mixed drinks that include ginger ale or ginger beer and lime or lemon juice.
Adding lime to a Dark ‘n’ Stormy creates a Rum Buck (also called a Jamaica Buck or a Barbados Buck). You can have a Gin Buck (a.k.a. London Buck), a Bourbon Buck (Kentucky Mule), a Tequila Buck or a Whiskey Buck.
A buck is the male of a number of different animals, including the antelope, deer, goat, hare, mule, rabbit and sheep.
Buck cocktails have been around for as long as ginger ale. The Gin Buck was a popular summer cooler during the Roaring Twenties (1.5 ounces gin, 4 ounces ginger ale, juice of half a lemon or lime).
The Moscow Mule was invented in 1941 by John G. Martin of G.F. Heublein Brothers, Inc., a spirits distributor; Rudolph Kunett, president of Heublein’s vodka division; and Jack Morgan, President of Cock ‘n’ Bull Products (which produced ginger beer) and proprietor of a restaurant of the same name, on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
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According to one citation, the three friends were in the Chatham Hotel bar in New York City, and wondered what would happen if a two-ounce shot of vodka—then a relative novelty in the U.S.—was combined with ginger beer and lime. Four or five drinks later, the new cocktail was christened the Moscow Mule. (Source: Wikipedia)
The name “Moscow” was conferred in honor of the vodka. In terms of why “Moscow Mule” instead of “Moscow Buck”: We can only imagine that they liked the alitteration.
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