Moscow Mule

[Mike Salovesh]

Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>
> MOSCOW MULE
>
>    OED has 1963 for "Moscow Mule," but Jesse probably has something a little
> better.
>    From BUCKEYE TAVERN, "Patrick Murphy's The Barman's Corner," 11 May 1944,
> pg. 4, col. 2:
>
>    Since the primary purpose of this column is to keep the trade informed of
> mixtro news in particular and beverage lore in general, we hasten to report
> that a drink is being promoted in the Southwest.  It's a brand promotion, but
> undoubtedly will click since it has a snappy name and its number one
> ingredient, vodka, is bought more easily in many areas than is gin or
> whiskey.  The drink is a cooler built along Tom Collins lines, and here is
> the recipe as advertised:
>    _MOSCOW MULE_
>    1 oz. vodka, 10 oz. glass and chipped ice, a twist of lemon peel.

Barry:

The recipe may very well be right for 1944, but I can attest that the
1948 version was quite different.  Smirnoff Vodka ran an advertising
campaign touting Moscow Mules in 1948; I believe they owned the
copyright on the name.  Their recipe called for a generous 1 oz. shot of
Smirnoff vodka in a 10 oz. copper mug, chipped ice, ginger beer, and a
twist of lemon peel.

The Smirnoff people made the mugs widely available.  They had the words
Moscow Mule and a picture of a kicking mule inscribed on their sides.  I
can date my Moscow Mule mug fairly precisely; it's tied to my
acquaintance with the late James Wilson.  Jimmy was a bartender at a bar
called University Tavern, on 55th Street near the University of
Chicago.  In November of 1948, Jimmy opened his own bar a block away.  I
moved when he did.  (I was four years away from being a legal drinker,
but Jimmy must have figured I had crossed that line, since he had been
serving me at UT for more than a year. He never asked me for proof of
age.) Soon after Jimmy's official grand opening celebration, his bar
became the place to go for U of C students.  I was one of the nighttime
regulars from the day Jimmy bought the bar, and my Moscow Mule mug was
regularly kept on a shelf behind the bar. Jimmy would mix me my then
favorite drink anytime I walked in the door.  Moscow Mules were popular
enough, and probably pretentious enough, that Jimmy regularly stocked
ginger beer.

I've still got the mug; it hangs over our kitchen sink, with a
collection of other copper mugs I've acquired over the years.  I haven't
had a Moscow Mule since we moved here thirty years ago.  (Maybe that's
because once I could buy my drinks legally, the fascination had worn
off.  Back when I was 17 or 18, I probably drank more alcohol in a week
or two than I drink now in a whole year -- and I'm hardly a teetotaler
today.)

-- mike salovesh                    <salovesh at niu.edu>
PEACE !!!