And what’s even better, you don’t have to feel limited to Vodka!
Use Gin and it’s a London Mule.
Use Bourbon and it’s a Kentucky Mule
Use Tequila and hopefully you don’t wake up and need to find a name for it.
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Use Rum, especially dark rum (but not spiced) and it’s a Dark and Stormy my warm weather beverage of choice.
If I was going to drink from a cooper mug regularly I would want a lined mug as cooper poisoning is no fun.
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Gosling’s is good, too. It’s the required (!) ginger beer for Dark & Stormys.
(I’m not just saying that out of snobbishness – Gosling’s trademarked the beverage and requires its ginger beer and dark rum to be used in it if you put “Dark ‘n’ Stormy” on your menu)
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Ah to be a true Dank n Stormy™ is must be Gosling’s Black Seal Rum
Which is why I generally stick to Dusky and Overcast and use whatever damn Rum (Kraken usually) and Ginger Beer I want.
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Neat. A second use for ginger beer.
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Of course, you know I must ask…
What is the first use of ginger beer 
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I was introduced to Dark & Stormys in Australia using Bundaberg rum and Bundaberg ginger beer. They seem to have a local trade mark for the drink too.You can pick up Bundaberg ginger beer at World Market outlets, alas there does not seem to be one near Pittsburgh. Bundy rum is harder to find as I don’t think there is a US distributor.
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Thanks, Mark, I just spent a shit-ton on Amazon. Do you get a cut?
I feel like we could compile a very long list of screencaps where Fraunfelder feels compelled to point out he doesn’t drink.
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(I see this point has already been made)
From what I understand the true origin of the drink is in a marketing ploy created by a Smirnoff sales rep as a way to move vodka, which was new to the US market at the time. There are various claims as to where he picked up the drink and the copper mug, most of which point to the cock and bull. But the story seems to have more to do with said Smirnoff salesman paying good looking people to drink vodka out of a distinctive cup. Bribing bars to carry Smirnoff, then suggesting the Moscow Mule and it’s marketing cup as a way to move it. Bystanders see the cup, like the cup, and say “what’s that, I want that”. It was successful and helped kick off the 50s vodka boom.
Now mules and bucks are a very old, very classic class of cocktails. Any liquor, in ginger beer with citrus. Dark and Stormy is basically just a corporate trade marked name for a dark rum buck. Personally I’m liking various sorts of whiskey in mine, rye and Irish especially.
Which brings us back around to the cup. Ginger beer and to a lesser extent bucks and mules, got a bit of play in the craft cocktail boom. But the Moscow mules’ current popularity seems to be more tied to lifestyle magazines and home good stores deciding the cups were stylish and something good yuppies “need” the way you need a separate set of fine China.
Which isn’t to say they aren’t fun. Metal cups are rad. Every time I watch Game of Thrones I drink a schwartzbier out of a pewter mug. But everyone should get lined/tinned mugs. Otherwise it tastes like metal, and as I learned from my nerd mugs, that’s not pleasant. They’ll patina eventually and the taste will go away. But it takes forever.
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Whatta way to ruin ginger beer. Yow!
Better go check the Fermentation thread in the craft category… I think the weather’s almost perfect to start my ginger bug.
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I was thinking of the Dark and Stormy. That was the first time I ever encountered ginger beer (some 20 years ago or so) and haven’t seen it mentioned in any other context until now.
I wasn’t a fan of the D&S and I suspect it was the ginger beer that put me off. So I doubt I’d enjoy a Moscow Mule.
As someone who drinks ginger beer quite a lot on its own, Dark & Stormys and Moscow Mules are right up my alley. Plus you get to drink out of a frosty copper cup, which is pretty awesome. I’m always happy when a bar has the copper mugs, especially in summertime, because dang those things get cold.
The worst Dark & Stormy I ever had, though, was at the Crow’s Nest – the bar from A Perfect Storm – which is an actual bar in the bay of Gloucester, MA. It’s frequented by local fishermen, so it’s very rowdy and genuinely rough, and they actually do have keys behind the bar so that you can rent rooms by the hour upstairs. I thought well, this is the place for a Dark & Stormy, so I ordered one. The grizzled lady frowned and poured some crappy light rum into a can of Canada Dry, and handed it to me with a cackle.
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What’s the best commercially available ginger beer?
Best commercially:
http://maineroot.com/sodas/ginger-brew/
I like my ginger beer cloudy and strong. We are lucky in Austin: Wheatsville Co-op South has this in bottles and on tap. It is commercially available but you may have to go to a Whole Paycheck Foods to find it if you don’t have any other options.
Second best, Reed’s Extra Ginger Brew.
http://reedsinc.com/product/reeds-extra-ginger-brew/
Widely available. I see it in grocery stores. Google says it’s even in WalMart (not that I ever shop there, but fyi).
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I like the look of these copper mugs. Is it safe to use them for hot beverages like coffee? Probably a bad idea I guess.
Safe as anything else. It’s not so much heat that leaches out the metal, but acid. Or even just the presence of water. So coffee shouldn’t be any worse than anything else. If it’s lined or tinned it shouldn’t be a problem at all.
But then I’m pretty sure you’d burn yourself. Metal in general conducts heat pretty well. And copper is a really good conductor of heat. Especially with the thin walls on these mugs your cup is gunna be as hot as the coffee in short order. There seem to be double walled and insulated versions that would solve the problem though.
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Eh, actually for all I know you are right.
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if it was in the dark ages it could be possible that Bavaria had different regulations. For some areas (like food safety) laws can be passed by state parliaments, but a federal law has precedence. afaik the first widespread nation-wide regulation took effect on 1. Jan 1975.
not that I invested that much time, but I did not find regulations for heavy metals in drinking vessels (but nearly all copper pots are tinned, so it’s possible I missed something)
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