Mixology Monday
My first time participating in Mixology Monday. I feel so, um, special. I have to admit though that I’m somewhat of a pretender to the cocktailian culture, a cocktAlien, if you will. I’m usually a straight up guy. I have to send a solid thank you to Jason and Dan at www.barnonedrinks.com for giving me a place to host my blog (especially to Jason for getting it up and running at three o’clock Sunday morning.) On to the cocktail…
How does a newly minted coctailian improve on a classic? Cautiously. My knowledge of the classics is limited to a few books and those that I came across at last year’s Tales of the Cocktail. I started my journey by calling together my cocktail brain trust, and then journeying through my memory for classic cocktails. It didn’t take me long to settle on what may be the greatest cocktail story of all time (in my humble opinion), that of the Moscow Mule.
I won’t bore you with the story of the Mule, except to say that this under-appreciated cocktail is the reason vodka is the best selling hard liquor in the world. Maybe I’ll post a longer version of the story later. For now, I will move along the to the ’superior’ twist.
The Havana mule, and a fuzzy me (on purpose). Photo by Annie McElwain.
Vodka, ginger beer and lime (in a 1:12:twist ratio). What do you change? The ginger beer is such a unique ingredient, I had to keep it. When I broke the drink apart, it seemed to be very similar to the ‘Jack and ginger’, my girlfriend’s dad’s favorite libation. I didn’t want to be quite so predictable (woohoo, The Raven added whiskey to a cocktail…) so I kept looking. I explored the big 5, and the trek brought me to the Cuba Libre, the old rum and Coke with lime.
The Havana Mule was born. My brain trust and I tried about a dozen permutations of the ginger beer:rum mixture. The best combination we made with the available ingredients was a very simple 3:1. Traditionally, the Moscow Mule was made with a much heavier pour of the ginger beer, but we felt that the 3:1 ratio mellowed the spice of the beer to a much nicer level.
The recipe:
Havana Mule
4 oz Spiced Rum (I used Captain Morgan’s)
12 oz Ginger Beer, chilled (Cock & Bull has good availability, and is named for the bar where the Mule originated)
1/2 (for juice) + 1/4 (for garnish) lime
In a standard tall glass, combine a few crushed ice cubes with the juice of 1/2 a lime. Add the rum, and let it percolate through the ice. Fill with the Cock & Bull, and give it a slight stir (don’t expend all of the carbonation, just make sure the ingredients are intimate with each other.) Garnish with the lime quarter.
The Havana Mule and it's constituent ingredients. Photo by Annie McElwain.
A big thanks out to Tristan at The Wild Drink Blog, for hosting this month’s party, and to the folks at MxMo, for consistently providing us with the ability to blaspheme so often. A very special thanks to Annie McElwain for her wonderful photos. And for the record, I don’t dance the twist.
Recent Comments