BIA Happy Hour Featured Beverage

The Legend of the Moscow Mule

In the early 1940s, John Martin an East Coast food and spirits importer was best known for introducing A-1 Steak Sauce to America. In the 1930s, Martin, in an effort to market the next cocktail craze, purchased a small vodka distillery called Smirnoff. Yes, that Smirnoff. Back then, very few people drank vodka because most had never heard of it, let alone tasted it.

One day, while Martin was visiting his friend Jack Morgan who owned the Cock ‘n Bull pub on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, he bemoaned the fact that he couldn’t sell his vodka. Morgan complained he also couldn’t sell his ginger beer, a side passion of his that saw cases of it sitting in his restaurant’s basement. And a third person (never identified in any of the stories) lamented that she had copper mugs that she either didn’t want or need. Enter the brainstorm. Could all three benefit from combining their losses? The vodka and ginger beer were mixed with a dash of lime juice and served in copper mugs, imprinted with a kicking mule. The Moscow Mule became one of the most popular drinks of the 1950s and early 1960s and is starting to make a comeback!