No, I am not talking about a Ukrainian drug smuggler. I am talking about the tasty and refreshing summer cocktail to enjoy as the Republic shows signs of collapse all around. I think the way to get through the GOP convention in Cleveland this week is vodka, plenty of it and keep it coming.

Given the events of the last week, I think a prudent person would lay in a robust stock of the clear beverage. Oh, in this continuing series of means to avoid reality, I last mentioned the vodka infused with vanilla and served with Canada Dry diet Ginger Ale- it is an old-fashioned cream soda with a mule’s kick, but here is the Real deal to go along with the Vic Special and The Cream Soda.

I mentioned to you a couple years back about the marvelous summer nectar that is served in copper-clad drinking vessels. Not only decorative, but tremendously efficient in cooling.

My young associate came up with some marvelous additions to the static display that I keep in the living room- the mugs neatly aligned on a hand-beaten copper serving tray. Her copper mugs are a full 16-oz, the better to prepare for spontaneous political action and protest. She also thoughtfully included a curious bar-bell shaped rubber ice-cube maker that produces the most extraordinary spherical balls of ice, pure and as transparent as crystal balls. They are marvelously effective.

(Full 16-oz copper mugs are the ideal delivery mechanism for this refreshing concoction. Note the spherical ice “cubes” next to the mug from Old Dominion).

The gift was thoughtful right down to the ground, and the enhanced volume of the new mugs will save literally minutes of time going back and forth to the pool. Plus, I can always use some more specialized barware I will use a couple times a year, like those pumpkin bowls from Williams & Sonoma. Practical, you know? I bought a set of four in hammered solid copper, a wonderful evocative metal with the functional benefit of retaining the coldness of the cocktail.

Cursory research (which did not actually involve pouring one, though it is getting on to noon, right?) indicated the Mule is a refreshing and easy vodka highball made with ginger beer was from the classic era of high-balls, and a drink that was designed to sell vodka to U.S. drinkers.

As if! But there really was a time when the Russian rocket fuel was a distant third to whiskey and Scotch. I still like my whiskey, but rocket fuel is the way I like to roll.

There are a couple of claims about who created the Mule. One dates to 1939, on the eve of Great Hate, Part Two. The other one dates to 1941 in the same bar, the Cock’n Bull pub in the sun-drenched streets of Hollywood.

A quick note about the ancient past, before the American drinking Public woke up and realized that Vodka was the next-to-last stop on the Oblivion Express. The Smirnoff brand was the result of a dramatic technical innovation by Pyotr Smirnov at his vodka distillery in Moscow in the 1860s: charcoal filtration. In a clever combination of influence peddling, advertising and patronage, he captured two-thirds of the domestic market by the 1880s, and the brand gained a Royal Patron, since even the Czar enjoyed his Smirnoff.

In fact, the Czar liked it so much that he nationalized the company in 1904. During the October Revolution of 1917 the Smirnov family had to flee the country via Turkey, Poland and France, though the brand by then a shadow of its former self. Smirnoff arrived in North America in the 1930s with the Kunett family which had supplied grains to the Smirnov distillery before the Revolution.

Smirnoff was a bomb on the market, and no one cared whether the Czar liked it or not. By 1938, Smirnoff couldn’t pay for the licenses to sell the product. John Martin of the Hublein beverage concern bought the brand for a song- literally the cost of the distilling equipment- and there the matter sat, a product looking for a market.

According to the 1939 story, Martin teamed with Morgan at the Cock’n Bull to pour Smirnoff into some fancy copper cups with ginger beer in about equal proportions and called it “The Moscow Mule” to promote the brand and the bar’s house ginger beer.

Or maybe you like the other story, from two years later. In that one, Cock’n Bull head bartender Wes Price needed to unload stock that wasn’t selling. This was enhanced by a marketing campaign in which the Moscow Mule (made with Smirnoff ) was served in copper mugs, which became a trademark vessel for the drink. The campaign was a success and people have been stupefied since.

Here is the recipe, though if you know the ingredients, it really doesn’t matter; you know, “vodka to taste.”

Traditional Moscow Mule

Prep Time: 3 minutes
Drinking time: Variable
Total Time: 3 minutes
Yield: 1 Cocktail

Ingredients:
2 ounces vodka or more. I use Popov, which is the loss-leader for Smirnov and a link to tradition. People tell you it is the bottom of the Smirnoff barrel. I say, after you choke down the first one, what does it matter?
1 ounce lime juice
Ginger Beer (Fevertree is a personal favorite for the ginger notes and fizz).
Lime wedge for garnish
Preparation:
Pour the vodka and lime juice into a copper mug with ice- I like crushed.
Top off with the ginger beer.
Garnish with the lime wedge.
Employment: r6ise copper mug to lips. Quench thirst. Drive carefully.

Copyright 2016 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com