We could also be dwelling by way of the age of the aperitivo and unendingly mad for Martinis, but when we’re actually being trustworthy, the cocktail we’re reaching for simply as typically — if no more — is the workaday Moscow Mule.

This vibrant concoction of ginger beer, vodka, lime and soda in its distinctive copper vessel may not garner the media love of its posher, pre-Prohibition counterparts — besides maybe that point phrase bought out that it’s Oprah Winfrey’s favourite cocktail. However numbers don’t lie.

The Mule was the third best-selling cocktail of 2023 in the USA, trailing solely the Margarita and the Martini, in accordance with NielsenQ (NIQ) knowledge compiled from greater than 10,000 unbiased and chain eating places and bars. The Mule additionally ranked tenth on Drinks Worldwide’s annual compendium of the 50 hottest cocktails worldwide in accordance with bartenders, behind the auspicious likes of the Negroni, Previous Normal, Daiquiri, Espresso and Dry Martinis, and the Whiskey Bitter. The Gin-Gin Mule, bartender Audrey Saunders’s early-aughts creation that subs in gin for vodka and borrows a minty garnish from the Mojito (or maybe Winfrey), rounded out the listing at No. 50.

The OG Influencer Cocktail?

Chalk up the Mule’s success to its refreshing simplicity as a candy, citrusy cocktail with ginger’s invigorating heat and the flavorless burn of vodka. A worthwhile crowd-pleaser that doubles as an on-ramp to extra chichi mixology, you’ll discover a Mule at each juggernaut restaurant chain Texas Roadhouse (within the type of a Kentucky Mule, swapping the vodka for bourbon) and at New York’s buzzing Double Rooster Please (No. 7 on the North American 50 Greatest Bars listing).

Or perhaps we love that charming, gimmicky mug that retains the drink frosty-cold. (It’s confirmed a tempting sufficient memento to warrant anti-theft measures by bars and loads of information media consideration by way of the years.) Actually, this eye-catching vessel arguably made the Mule one of many unique influencer cocktails. As an typically repeated origin story goes, in 1939, a small drinks dealer named John G. Martin acquired the American rights to a big Russian vodka model referred to as Smirnoff. In the meantime, his pal Jack Morgan, proprietor of the Cock’N’Bull Saloon in Los Angeles, was making an attempt to launch his personal model of ginger beer with out a lot luck. The 2 purportedly met at New York’s Chatham Bar, the place they hatched the thought to combine Martin’s vodka with Morgan’s ginger beer and add a squeeze of lime. They determined to advertise and serve the drink in a putting copper mug (designed by Russian Sophie Berezinski for her father’s copper manufacturing unit — and, till then, promoting fairly poorly). The remainder was, as they are saying, historical past.

Ginger beer exists on the fortuitous intersection of various converging traits — amongst them the rise of craft spirit-free and so-called useful drinks.

Bartenders have lengthy toyed with the Mule’s part components, subbing its vodka base for gin, Jamaican rum, Pimm’s, apple brandy, mezcal, or bourbon, and zhuzhing its taste profile with the whole lot from absinthe to raspberries, hibiscus, peach schnapps, and sarsaparilla.

This doesn’t all the time spring from the minds of barkeeps, both.

“I had a girl tonight order a Caramel Mule,” one bartender wrote two years in the past on the bartending subReddit. It’s doable that stated patron was referencing the Smirnoff Kissed Caramel Mule, which reinforces its namesake, caramel-flavored vodka base with a caramel dice garnish. Certainly, there’s nary a household-name spirit model that doesn’t provide up a Mule or riff recipe on its web site, be it Ketel One, Skyy (with vodka or agave!), Bacardi, or Jose Cuervo.

It Should Be the Ginger Beer

It’s simply as seemingly that the Mule’s timeless recognition owes largely to its dominant mix-in: ginger beer, the star of the additionally reliably beloved, mass-market rum highball: the Darkish ‘n Stormy. Ginger ale’s refined, British-born cousin has currently turn into a veritable NA powerhouse in its personal proper. The worldwide ginger beer market is predicted to succeed in $7.94 billion this yr, up 7.6 p.c from $7.38 billion in 2023, in accordance with ResearchandMarkets. It would even hit $10 billion this decade, ought to its predicted 7.5 p.c compound annual progress fee maintain regular.

In 2023, Warrillow advised Forbes the one purpose the ginger class had been on the decline for therefore lengthy till then was the “awful soda variations in the marketplace.”

Ginger beer exists on the fortuitous intersection of various converging traits, amongst them the rise of craft spirit-free and so-called useful drinks. Gingerol, a pure part of ginger root, has lengthy been touted as a digestive support, additionally wealthy in antioxidants and (purportedly) anti-inflammatory compounds. In fact, these advantages — a number of of which nonetheless warrant further analysis — don’t actually maintain water as soon as that ginger root is extracted, force-carbonated, and sweetened with sugar. However, as we’ve discovered with the “healthiest” spirit, tequila, many health-conscious customers don’t essentially care.

British producer Fever-Tree Drinks turned a family title at bars across the globe because of its posh bottled tonics, although it has lately skilled a lot of its consideration on its line of “Gingers.” In March, CEO Tim Warrillow claimed that Fever-Tree is now the most important ginger beer model on this planet, telling The Occasions that ginger beer now accounts for 20 p.c of the corporate’s international gross sales and was its fastest-selling product in 2023, rising by 17 p.c. Previously six years, the corporate has rolled out Blood Orange Ginger Beer in collaboration with Maker’s Mark and a lightweight model of its ginger beer, plus Premium Ginger Ale (common and light-weight), Smoky Ginger Ale, and Spiced Orange Ginger Ale. In 2023, Warrillow advised Forbes the one purpose the ginger class had been on the decline for therefore lengthy till then was the “awful soda variations in the marketplace.” As of final yr, ginger was nonetheless “crimson sizzling,” he stated.

On observe with the “the whole lot previous turns into new once more” adage (taking a look at you, fanny packs and Espresso ’Tinis), ginger ale could also be poised for a comeback of its personal. The worldwide ginger ale market is predicted to succeed in $4.7 billion by 2032, rising at a pleasant clip of over 3 p.c yearly, in accordance with Future Market Insights. Fevertree’s U.S. CEO, Charles Gibb, has been quoted in product rollout press releases noting the untapped potential of ginger ale as a mix-in for premium darkish spirits. Certainly, per Mintel, the U.S. marketplace for darkish spirits elevated by 8.3 p.c in 2023, and is “steadily climbing in the direction of $100+ billion” by 2028, thanks partly to the explosion of youth-courting RTD cocktails. It’s not simply concerning the premium finish of the market, in fact. Simply ask my dad, who faithfully commences each Thanksgiving with a stiff spherical of Seagram’s 7 & 7 cocktails, which he all the time makes with Schweppes ginger ale. I suppose you’d name them 7 & Schweppes.

Ginger ale is pleasingly subtler than its spicier counterpart, and enjoys related, enduring health-halo standing to ginger beer. Furthermore, it stays the selection beverage for settling stomachs and refreshing palates on airplanes. We’d cease in need of recommending ginger ale as a mixer within the Moscow Mule, nevertheless. Then once more, given the numbers, everybody seemingly already is aware of that.

This story is part of VP Professional, our free platform and e-newsletter for drinks trade professionals, overlaying wine, beer, liquor, and past. Join VP Professional now!