National Moscow Mule Day (March 3rd) is rapidly approaching and what better way to celebrate than with Q Mixers, a fantastic brand that elevates your drinks with premium mixers!
No matter the season, this refreshing vodka-based drink is perfect year-round. A vintage cocktail dating back to Los Angeles in 1941, it achieves the perfect balance between spicy, sweet, and bold. Adding to its appeal is that its often served in a classic copper mug. How cool is that?
The Q Mixers website features cocktail recipes for the traditional Moscow mule and also shares how to add some variety to your mule with Light Ginger Beer or for a sweeter, more floral mule, with Hibiscus Ginger Beer.
How It Began
Drinking gin and tonics with his friends in the backyard of his Brooklyn home, Jordan Silbert was repulsed by the overly sweet, sticky, and unpleasant taste the tonic water left in his mouth. A little investigating and he discovered that the bottles of tonic water they were consuming contained not only 32 grams of high fructose syrup, artificial flavors, and artificial preservatives. A friend was drinking Sprite. A quick look at both bottles showed Jordan there was little difference in ingredients between Sprite and tonic water.
Not wanting to mix great gin with crummy tonic water, Jordan became obsessed with creating a wonderful tonic water—a task that took four years of work in his kitchen. But the result was the spectacular Q Tonic Water.
File this under if you make a great product people will find a way to your door, but immediately Jordan’s products were being written up in media stories and restaurants and bars were demanding the product which he and his dad delivered throughout New York.
Then, the next obsession hit him, with Jordan wanting to create mixes equally as good as his Q Tonic Waters. “For each Q drink I agonize like I did with Q Tonic Water,” says Jordan, who founded Q Mixers. “I source the absolute best ingredients I can find and then tinker and tinker with the recipe until I come up with something I love. Something spectacular.”
Taste it and you’ll know what he’s talking about.
The Drinks.
Traditional Moscow Mule
Ingredients
- 5 oz Q Mixers Ginger Beer (can substitute Hibiscus Ginger Beer or Light Ginger Beer)
- 1.5 oz Premium Vodka
- 0.5 oz lime juice
Fill a highball glass or copper mug with ice. Pour in your favorite vodka and squeeze in the lime juice, leaving the lime shell in the glass. Then pour in the Q Mixers Ginger Beer (or other variation) and gently stir.
Tony’s Festive Mule
1½ oz Tito’s Vodka
1½ oz Fresh Lime Juice
1½ oz Spiced Cranberry-Orange Syrup
4 oz Q Mixers Ginger Beer
Cranberry-orange syrup: Combine 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of cranberry juice, peel from 1 orange, cinnamon stick, and two cloves in a small saucepan and simmer for twenty minutes. Let the mixture cool and strain into an empty bottle.
In a shaker add vodka, lime juice, and syrup; shake with ice. Strain into an ice-filled highball glass. Top with chilled Q Ginger Beer. Garnish with a powdered sugar sprig of mint.
CUBA LIBRE
So much more than the rum and coke you’ve had in the past. In the Cuba Libre, the addition of lime pairs incredibly well with rum and brings out the nuanced flavors of kola for delicious drink that’s surprisingly complex yet easy to make.
1½ oz Premium Rum
5 oz Q Kola
2 Lime Wedges
Fill a highball glass with ice. Pour in the rum and squeeze in a lime. Then pour in the Q Kola. Gently stir and garnish with the other lime wedge.
If you have some cocktail bitters this is a great drink to experiment with. Add a few drops for some extra depth and bring out some savory flavors.
DARK & STORMY
A cousin of the Moscow Mule, the Dark and Stormy pairs spicy ginger beer with dark rum. When prepared in the traditional way, the rum floats to the top and the drink lives up to its infamous name.
1½ oz Goslings Dark Rum
5 oz Q Ginger Beer
½ oz Lime Juice
Fill a highball glass with ice. Pour in the Q Ginger Beer and squeeze in the lime. Top with the rum so it floats on the top, looking like a dark storm cloud that will force you to stay at the bar all afternoon.
