The Moscow Mule: A Kicking History

The Moscow Mule. 

The Moscow Mule is one of those great drinks for any occasion. Weather it's a summer refresher your looking for or a wintery ginger kick that you're after, then The Moscow Mule is the drink for you.

The Moscow Mule, since its creation, has been hugely popular. There have been many twists on the old classic, by changing the main spirit, weather it's using brandy for a French Mule or tequila for a Mexican Mule it's difficult to get wrong, and is always a fantastic drink.

A Bottle of Smirnoff  Black Vodka.

History

The creation of the of the Moscow Mule is somewhat disputed. In the research that I've done, I've found two main stories that stand out. Although one fact that remains consistent, is that it was originally created with Smirnoff vodka.

In 1934, Rudolf Kunnet secured the rights to Smirnoff from his friend Valdmir Smirnov, who was exiled from Russia to France during the Bolshevik Revolution, to produce his family vodka under the French spelling of his father's name, Piotr in America. 

Kunnet struggled with Smirnoff due to it being unpopular at the time in the US. In 1939 Kunnet sold the rights to a Connecticut company called Heublin, run by John G Martin. Martin kept Kunnet on as an account executive when he bought the company.

The Creation of The Moscow Mule

The first story of its creation is that John G Martin had a friend, Jack Morgan who own a bar on Sunset Strip called Cock 'n' Bull. Morgan had at the time had a stock of ginger beer which he couldn't sell. In the mean time, Morgan's girlfriend Osleen Schmit had recently inherited a copper manufacturing company.

According to Martin, himself, Kunnet, Morgan and Schmit met in the Cock 'n' Bull one evening to create a drink with Smirnoff and ginger beer. They settled on two ounces of vodka in a copper mug topped with ginger beer with a squeeze of lime juice. How they created the name is somewhat a mystery but, Martin said "it had something to do with a kick".

The other story came to light in an article in The Wall Street Journal in 2007, in which it credits the Cock 'n' Bull's head bartender at the time, Wes Price, for creating the drink.Price says he came up
with the drink sometime in 1941 in an effort to "to clean the basement" which had at the time, a shipment of Smirnoff in it as well as an excess of ginger beer. The Moscow Mule became so popular Price even made the drink for actor Broderick Crawford. Price said of its rise in popularity "it caught on like wildfire".

The Mule was hugely popular in America until the out break of World War 2, when production of Smirnoff stopped, and things were to get worse before they got better. The Cold War began and Americans began seeing the Moscow Mule as a Russian drink supporting Communism.

The Americans began avoiding the drink, but with the help of Smirnoff indicating that its vodka was not, and never had been a member of the Communist party, it survived the scare and was relaunched in 1965 as the 'Smirnoff Mule'. 

The Moscow Mule now enjoys its place in some of the top cocktail bars today.

Recipe

Knowing the original calls for regular Smirnoff, I'm actually going to use Smirnoff Black for this one. It was kindly given to me by a friend especially for this but, it's up to you which vodka you would like to use. Copper mugs are optional, but any long glass will do. 

Moscow Mule

50ml Smirnoff Black.

20ml Lime juice.

Fill the glass with ice & 

Top with Ginger Beer.

Garnish with a lime wheel

and a slice of fresh ginger.

References

http://www.diffordsguide.com
A Cock(tail) 'n' Bull Story, The Wall Street Journal 2007
Ted Haigh's Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails.

Bar Convent Berlin 2015. An Experience.

Bar Convent Berlin.

Picture of the Mast-Jagermiester stall.

At the beginning of the month I got a chance to experience one of the largest bar shows in the world; Bar Convent Berlin. B.C.B was launched in 2007 and today, is among the largest international meetings in the bar industry. With over 120 exhibitors and an annual crowd of 9'000 people expected each year, I was lucky enough to attend the convention with two other bartenders from Dublin.

Darren at the entrance to White Trash

Outside area of White Trash

We flew from Dublin Airport on a Tuesday morning and landed in Berlin at about 10:30am. A quick taxi into the city and our hotel where we met Christian from Mast-Jagermeister, our host for the the day.

 After we checked in, we got a quick talk about Jagermeister and its history, before we were brought to a place called White Trash Fast Food. This was a quirky place where the outside looking like someone's back garden in Southern America with an old bus as the entrance. the food was good and I was loving there "fuck you fries"

After lunch we got into a Jager jeep(1 of 4 they have) and we were brought to the bar show, While on our way there we drove past some of the city's tourists attractions( remains of the Berlin wall and Checkpoint Charlie). when we arrivied at the show we entered and I was in awe.

B.C.B covers 5 hall with talks going on throughout the show, You could spend a full 2 days there and probably not cover everything. Our first stop was the Mast-Jagermeister stall where they had 4 individual bars each serving a specific style of drink, We went for the sweet and sour stall and the drinks were great, One of my favourites was their Jager style zombie.

We ended up leaving the Jagermeister stall and went on to explore the rest of the show. The show was full of brands from the large brands like Pernod/Ricard to smaller ones like Ugava and Glendalough distillery and even the new Teelings Whiskey, with each stall offering tastings of it product as well as information on it. Monkey 47 gin had a new product on show as well as Chopin vodka.

Me & Matteo Luxardo.

Anna Walsh & Tess Posthumus @ World Class stall.

One of my highlights of the show was getting to sit in on a talk by Jacob Briars & Ivy Mix called 'Standing on the Shoulder of Giants' which was a great talk about how to improve as a bartender. the next moment was meeting Gaz Regan and getting my copy of his book Negroni signed.

The show was full of different things happening through the day. From the World Class stage where competitors of this years competition offered samples of there drinks to cocktail demonstrations.

Towards the end of the show we made our way back to the Jagermeister stall and met with Christian before heading back to the hotel to change before dinner. We went to a quiet little restaurant for dinner which was great (my first time trying Schnitzel) two mains and a Jagermeister in after each.

After dinner we were brought to an after party held in what looked like a dodgy area, but as we rounded a corner, we saw a queue of people waiting. On entering the party we were given tokens which were used to buy your drinks. The place was a large open building with an outside area where a pool was, the music was pumping and the Jagermeister was flowing.

 At some hour in the morning we left the party and made our way back to the hotel, but not before grabbing some pizza. Arriving at the hotel and made sure I had a wake up call for the morning, and we headed to bed to get ready for our trip back to Dublin the next day.

Drinks at the after party.

Picture of us at the after party.

To sum up the trip, I would advise anyone if you have an interest in the industry or are just an avid spirits enthusiast go to Bar Convent Berlin. It is something I will not forget and will hope to be back again next year.

To finish I'd like to say a big thank you to Mast-Jagermeister for bringing me over and showing us such a great time and looking after us so well and Barry & Fitzwilliam for giving me the opportunity to experience the show.

The Daiquiri. A Timeless Classic

The Daiquiri; a cocktail bartenders favourite, well mine anyway. This classic cocktail is usually followed by words like strawberry, raspberry or frozen, but there is much more to this cocktail than the frozen drink it has now become.

History of the Daiquiri:

In 1898 the US began mining Iron Ore in Cuba, in a little town called Santiago De Cuba. The first expedition was led by an engineer named Jennings Cox. His destination was a place on the south eastern shore of Cuba near the Seirra Maestra Mountains. the nearest town to where Cox was working, was a place called Daiquiri. The men were attracted to the mining in Cuba by the reward of high salaries, and included in this salary was a bottle of local white rum.

There are tow versions of the story of the how the Daiquiri came about. One being that during a meeting with another engineer, Cox set about making a drink from what he had at his disposal at the time; a bottle of rum, limes and sugar.
the second story comes from his granddaughter she recounted that while entertaining some American guests one evening he ran out of gin, being weary of giving them straight rum he added lime and sugar to make it easier for them to drink.
Which ever story it you prefer is your choice, but what is clear Cox had created something quite special.

The name of the Daiquiri came about after some time. Cox was in a bar one evening with some friends, realising that the drink had no name he declared to his friends "Gentlemen and friends, we have been drinking this combination for awhile now. Don't you think that we should baptise it?" After a brief silence he said "I have it we shall call it Daiquiri, after this little town where it was created.

The Daiquiri's popularity grew on the island of Cuba, but its popularity would grow much more. In 1909 Admiral Lucius Johnson returned from the Spanish - American war and introduced the cocktail to the Army & Navy Club in Washington D.C. It was from there that the Daiquiri spread across the country to bars and clubs.

The Recipe:

If you were to look through an old cocktail book from the renowned La Flordita Bar in Cuba, you will see that under the Daiquiri, the list of ingredients has the word Limòns this is due to there being no word for lime in Spanish.

Jennings Cox original recipe (Serves 6):

The juice of 6 limòns (limes)
6 Teaspoons of sugar
6 Bacardi cups “Carta Blanca”
2 small cups of mineral water.

Plenty of crushed ice
Put all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake well.
Personally I prefer my Daiquiri’s a bit on the sharp side, so this is my personal favourite recipe. I
make mine with caster sugar and before some wise-guy says, “the sugar won’t dissolve and all you
taste is lime”, if you were to put in the lime and sugar first, stir it around and then it will dissolve.

My Daiquiri Recipe (Serves One):

2 Barspoons of Caster sugar.
20mls of Lime juice.
50mls of White Rum.

Instructions: 

Put the lime and caster sugar into a mixing glass and stir for a few seconds to help the sugar to dissolve.
 Next add the rum (whatever rum you chose is up to you I normally use Bacardi, but not bound to it) fill the shaker with cubed ice and shake well.
Double strain into a chilled glass and garnish with a lime wedge on the side of the glass or a lime zest on top.