The Great Moscow Mule Rant!!!

The Moscow Mule is a great drink. It pretty much single handedly made Smirnoff the global behemoth it is today as it was responsible for Smirnoff becoming a household name in the U.S. in the 1950’s. Before this drink came along no-one west of Berlin drank vodka, and gin was the white spirit of choice. A beautifully simple creation of Russian vodka, lime juice and ginger beer, the name comes from the kick from the ginger beer.

There is not a lot to say about how to make a good Moscow mule per se. The modern palette is a little sweeter, and so many recipes nowadays will call for a dash of sugar syrup or lime cordial. Also the use of Angostura bitters is very common, and it gives the drink tropical notes and added depth. Also some bars will use fresh pressed ginger with sugar and soda to make a mule with a very serious kick. This is what we do at the Loft. Good modern brands of ginger beer are D&G and Fentimans.

Now for the rant. John Martin owned the rights to Smirnoff, and having met Jack Morgan, the owner of the Cock’nBull Saloon in Hollywood, who was launching a ginger beer, they decided to come up with a drink to promote both their brands. In itself a bit annoying but in this case the ends justified the means.

However, in a case of history repeating itself, Smirnoff and now Schweppes are promoting Moscow Mules made with ginger ale. This is a bland insipid drink with no kick whatsoever. For anyone who does not know, ginger beer has a strong taste, hot and very gingery. Ginger ale on the other hand is very mild and needs accompanying by a strong flavour, Scotch or Pimms or whatever you want, but something with a little flavour and not vodka. Some arse in marketing has obviously persuaded the powers that be that if they try and sell us Moscow Mules with ginger ale, that they will sell more cocktails. So they are basicaly advocating desacrating a classic drink. One can understand it from Schweppes, as they have no connection to the drink, but someone at Smirnoff should have recognized their brand’s historic connection to the drink, a connection almost unique in the cocktail world (there are others such as the Bacardi Cocktail, but they are nowhere near the mule in terms of sales) and insisted on the use of ginger beer. It’s not even like Schweppes don’t have a ginger beer, they do. Also when Smirnoff launched a pre-mixed Moscow Mule a few years ago, it was made with ginger beer, so they know what to put in it. Probably these didn’t sell so well, and they thought the problem was the ginger beer, when it wasn’t, it was the lack of fresh lime. Anyway, there are now countless people who were introduced to the “Moscow buck” (the proper name for a tall drink with ginger ale)and I hope that enough of them with taste thought it was rubbish.

If Diageo and Schweppes want to push ginger ale, do it with Pimms.