Vodka wasn’t always popular in America. Sure, the Bloody Mary and the Screwdriver began to appear shortly after prohibition ended, but it really wasn’t until three men — Jack Morgan, John G. Martin, and Rudolph Kunett — got together and brainstormed a way to market their individual products together as a team that vodka really took off in America.

In the late 1930s, a vodka distributor for G.F. Heublein named John G. Martin facilitated the purchase of the rights to Smirnoff Vodka with grand plans to rebrand and reintroduce vodka to the American public. Over the next few years things didn’t really pan out as expected. Vodka was still a running joke in America as being “Russian for ‘horrendous'”.

Then John Martin sat down at Cock ‘n’ Bull Pub in Hollywood, California with his friend and owner of the pub, Jack Morgan. As it turns out, Morgan also had a flailing product line– a ginger beer that he had been bottling but not selling very much of. The two decided to co-brand a new cocktail comprised of both their products — ginger beer and vodka — as well as a splash of lime juice, and called it a Moscow Mule. They also included a third friend with a struggling line of copper mugs into their grand plans in order to give the product visual differentiation from other drinks.

The three men ran around town with a Polaroid camera and took pictures of bartenders holding their Moscow Mule in cool copper mugs. At each establishment, they took two photos– one to leave with the bartender so they could post it at the bar, and the other they took with them to bring to the next bar to show the next bartender that this new drink is so popular all the other bars are already serving it.

Just like that, the Moscow Mule was born.

So what is the Moscow Mule drink made of today?
The original recipe for the Moscow Mule is still the ultimate recipe. Of course, for a truly authentic Moscow Mule experience, not only do you need to get the recipe right, but you need the best copper mug as well.