The method
How to make it
Fill a copper mug with ice if you have one, a rocks glass if you do not. The copper gets colder faster, that is the whole secret.
Add the vodka, cranberry juice and lime juice.
Top with cold ginger beer, the spicier the better against the tart cranberry.
One gentle stir to marry it.
Float three fresh cranberries and stand a lightly torched rosemary sprig in the ice like a tiny Christmas tree.
The serve
How to present it
Frosted copper mug, red drink, green sprig, floating berries, it decorates itself for December. The two-second rosemary torch releases the pine smell that makes people say it tastes like Christmas before they have tasted anything. Serve at the holiday party and watch it outsell everything.
Make it yours
Swaps & variations
Bourbon instead of vodka makes it a Kentucky winter mule. White cranberry juice keeps the flavor and drops the color for a frostier look. Out of season, plain lime and extra ginger beer returns it to the classic mule it came from.
In the glass
From every angle
Keep pouring
