“Durham Savour the Season – September 11-22, 2013.  A 12-day culinary experience you don’t want to miss!”

 What is Savour the Season?

Savour the Season is Durham’s annual culinary festival showcasing our local harvest. Durham Region chefs are paired with local farmers and producers to transform fresh local fare into mouth-watering dishes offered at a fixed price.

Imagine savouring a bowl of butternut squash soup, creatively prepared by a Durham Region chef using squash that was picked yesterday from a farm just down the road. Enjoy a warm apple crisp made using freshly picked Durham Region apples, and drizzled with local maple syrup. How about an entree featuring fresh, grass-fed organic local beef, and complementing your meal with a glass of fruit wine from one of Durham Region’s award-winning wineries?

Savour the Season’s featured menus offer at least one appetizer, main course and dessert where the main element is from a local Durham Region or Ontario supplier. You’ll get to taste Durham Region’s freshest seasonal bounty, while supporting sustainable agriculture.

Mixing Moscow Mule Like A Maven

Learn how to make the timeless cocktail drink with a few easy steps.

The Moscow mule has apparently made a comeback into the cocktail scene recently and although the two main ingredients are once unpopular, people from way back and today have grown to love the concoction. It is for this reason that many are now looking for recipes on how to make a Moscow mule with ginger beer.

Although the Moscow mule sounds extremely Russian, as the name implies, the cocktail itself was not invented in the European city. In fact, the silly vodka drink was concocted in Manhattan in 1941 by a couple of chaps, who are both in the distillery business. One of them, John G. Martin, was a spirits distributor from the East Coast while the other, Jack Morgan, the then president of Cock ‘n’ Bull products, which include ginger beer, one of the main ingredients of the cocktail.

Aside from the ginger beer, the other important ingredient of the Moscow is vodka. Did you know that at that time, these two spirits, separately, were not very popular to the drinking group? But as luck would have it, put together, they created one of the most popular cocktails that is loved to this day. Below you will find the ingredients, and their exact measurements, on how to make a Moscow mule with ginger beer.

INGREDIENTS: (per one serving)

  • 2 ounces of vodka
  • 4 to 6 ounces of ginger beer
  • ½ ounce of fresh lime juice
  • Lime wedge
  • Ice cubes

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Pour in the fresh lime juice in a copper mug. This type of mug, apart from the ginger beer and the vodka, has become synonymous to Moscow mule. When you mention the cocktail, people almost always picture those rustic liquid containers. Rumor has it that using the copper mugs for the Moscow mule was just an accidental success given the history that the designer almost threw them out when no one would buy them. If you don’t have a copper mug, any glass will do. After all, the container is more a visual component and doesn’t affect the taste of the vodka buck at all.

  2. If you still have the part of the lime where you squeezed the juice from, drop it in the mug or glass as well. Discard the seeds.

  3. Dunk in ice cubes. Ideally 2 or 3 cubes are enough for the serving. However, if you want the Moscow as cold as the city in winter, you can always do so. Just be prepared for the cocktail to be more diluted.

  4. Pour in the cold ginger beer and the vodka. Any brand of ginger beer will do. Others go for the spicier version for more kick. The vodka could be a standard one or a high-grade one but this will all depend on your budget. Originally, Smirnoff vodka was used by the bartender, who made the Moscow mule, because the brand was not selling in the bar.

  5. After putting the most important ingredients, voila! The vodka buck is ready to be served with a stirring rod. Place the lime wedge on top for garnish.

Learning how to make a Moscow mule with ginger beer isn’t rocket science. For this reason, the next time your friends come by the house for a cocktail party, you will definitely be able to serve them this classic cocktail.

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