The Moscow Mule is a zingy combination of vodka, lime, and ginger beer (gingerale’s spicier, sassier big sister who, like a mule, knows how to kick). It was born in 1941 when three friends–Jack Morgan, a ginger beer producer, John G. Martin, a liquor distributor, and Rudolph Kunett, president of the vodka division of Martin’s company–put their heads together in the bar of New York’s Chatham Hotel. Though it wasn’t conceived as a seasonal drink, I think it’s a nice choice for warm-weather Christmases and the occasionally sultry December day–like the one just passed–here in New York.

Moscow Mule
Makes one drink.
2 oz. vodka
1 oz. fresh lime juice
6 oz. ginger beer

Stir ingredients together and serve over ice. The drink was legendarily served in copper mugs, but who has a set of those? A tumbler or collins glass is the thing.

A perhaps unnecessary word of warning: do not attempt to shake the ingredients together, no matter how festive you’re feeling (I speak from recent experience). Ginger beer is a soft drink and behaves like one when you rile it up.