Smirnoff Moscow Mule

INGREDIENTS:

1.5 oz. Smirnoff Vodka
3 oz Ginger Beer
1 tsp Sugar Syrup
0.25 oz Lime Juice
Mint sprig (some use Basil)
1 Slice of Lime

INSTRUCITIONS:

In glass or copper mug, add Smirnoff Vodka, sugar syrup and lime juice. Top with ginger beer, some ice and stir. Garnish with mint sprig and lime slice.

Serve in Rock Gass or Copper Mug

From: www.en.wikipedia.org

THE MOSCOW MULE

The cocktail was invented in 1941 by John G. Martin of G.F. Heublein Brothers, Inc., an American East Coast spirits and food distributor based in Hartford, Connecticut, and "Jack" Morgan, President of Cock 'n' Bull Products (which produced ginger beer) and proprietor of the The Cock and Bull restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, which was popular with celebrities.[1][2][3][4]

George Sinclair quotes from a 2007 article run in the New York Herald Tribune:

The mule was born in Manhattan but "stalled" on the West Coast for the duration. The birthplace of "Little Moscow" was in New York's Chatham Hotel. That was back in 1941 when the first carload of Jack Morgan's Cock 'n' Bull ginger beer was railing over the plains to give New Yorkers a happy surprise…

The Violette Family helped. Three friends were in the Chatham bar, one John A. Morgan, known as Jack, president of Cock 'n' Bull Products and owner of the Hollywood Cock 'n' Bull Restaurant; one was John G. Martin, president of G.F. Heublein Brothers Inc. of Hartford, Conn., and the third was Rudolph Kunett, president of the Pierre Smirnoff, Heublein's vodka division. As Jack Morgan tells it, "We three were quaffing a slug, nibbling an hors d'oeuvre and shoving toward inventive genius". Martin and Kunett had their minds on their vodka and wondered what would happen if a two-ounce shot joined with Morgan's ginger beer and the squeeze of a lemon. Ice was ordered, lemons procured, mugs ushered in and the concoction put together. Cups were raised, the men counted five and down went the first taste. It was good. It lifted the spirit to adventure. Four or five days later the mixture was christened the Moscow Mule...[5]

The Moscow mule is almost always served in a copper mug. The popularity of this drinking vessel is attributable to Martin, who went around the country to sell Smirnoff vodka and popularize the Moscow mule. Martin asked bartenders to pose with a specialty copper mug and a bottle of Smirnoff vodka, and photographed a Polaroid picture of them. He took two photos, leaving one with the bartender for display. The other photo would be put into a collection and used as proof to the next bar Martin visited of the popularity of the Moscow mule.[6] The copper mug remains, to this day, a popular serving vessel for the Moscow mule, primarily due to tradition and aesthetic reasons.[citation needed]

According to a 1942 Insider Hollywood article, the Moscow mule was most popular in Los Angeles, where it originated.[4] The Nevada State Journal (12 October 1943) reinforced the mule's popularity in reporting: "Already the Mule is climbing up into the exclusive handful of most-popular mixed drinks". It became known as a favorite drink of Reno casino owner William F. Harrah. In his book Beat the Dealer (1964), Edward O. Thorp did not name the Tahoe casino where he thought he had been poorly treated as a card counter. Instead, he wrote, "I went to the bar and had a Moscow Mule", subtly hinting that the location was Harrah's Tahoe, due to Harrah's then well-known proclivity for the drink.[citation needed]