A brisk, effervescent highball in which clean vodka steps aside and lets fresh lime and spicy ginger beer do the talking, tart and peppery over plenty of ice. Served in a frosty copper mug, it drinks bracingly cold, the chilled metal sharpening the ginger's bite against the squeeze of lime.
Garnish: Lime Wheel
Built · Copper Mug · On the Rocks
build
Fill a copper mug with ice cubes.
add
Add the vodka and lime juice.
top
Top with ginger beer.
stir
Gently stir to incorporate all ingredients.
garnish
Garnish with a lime wheel.
No single inventor emerges from the record: the drink dates to 1941 in the United States, where it was dreamed up as a commercial partnership to shift sluggish stocks of vodka and ginger beer. The most repeated account credits three businessmen — Jack Morgan of the Cock 'n' Bull, John G. Martin of Heublein and Rudolph Kunett of Smirnoff — while rival West Coast stories name bartender Wes Price and copper-mug importer Sophie Berezinski. The copper vessel became inseparable from its legend, and the International Bartenders Association now publishes an official spec for the drink.