The Ginger Beer Encounter

So my first encounter with ginger beer was in fact when I immigrated to the US… literally. My brother in law picked me up in his International Harvester Scout truck from O’Hare and offered me a ginger beer can on the way home. Took the first sip, and I had an instant flashback to my grandmother’s hand lotion she used when I was a child. What was wrong with this drink? Or perhaps with me? I ended up dumping the whole can on a flower bed when we arrived home.
Fast forward 19 years (whoa!). Things have changed. I can now drink ginger beer with no issues. YAY, America!
So, since it’s a pivotal ingredient in a decent Moscow Mule, (besides the vodka of course) it has to be one of the best, right? To each his or her own but I’ll stick with Fever Tree or Bundaberg. No, it is not cheap, mind you. But this is one of those occurrences when you should just try out at least a bottle.
Now, if you want to control your sugar amount in this cocktail, as some might like it dry, just go ahead and skip the ginger beer altogether, and use regular sugar, and Seltzer water.
Really, it is not much to it. Pretend you didn’t see that.
Copper mugs? Well, yeah, if you want to stick to tradition. In the end, cocktails have room for creativity and you shouldn’t stop if you don’t have copper mugs. I didn’t have them, but my neighbor did (thanks, Bob!), so for the sake of the photo shoot I went with copper mugs.

Moscow Mule Recipe

So here you have it for one delicious serving of Moscow Mule:

• 2 oz vodka (Smirnoff maybe?)
• 4 oz ginger beer (Fever Tree or Bundaberg)
• 1/2 oz lime juice (half of a lime usually)

Mix vodka and lime juice in mug or cup (Collins glasses), add crushed ice to the top, and gently (that is geeeeently) pour in the ginger beer. Garnish the top with lime rind and presto! For the fun of it, I added some mint sprigs to each cup. Looks better in the photos.
As always, you can license images from this Moscow Mule stock photo shoot here.