cocktail hour: strawberry moscow mules

If you love ginger, you will love this fruity version of a moscow mule. It's spicy and sweet, and practically screams HELLO SUMMER!

The classic version is served in a copper mug and has ginger beer, lime juice, and vodka. The mug is said to have been a marketing gimmick initiated by the vodka companies. It worked a little too well because people loved the flashy mugs and started taking them home as souvenirs. I've been determined to find a copper mug from one of the local antique stores, but so far no dice. 

But a silly gimmick copper mug wasn't going to come between me and my mules.

For a twist on the classic drink, I used freshly harvested strawberries from the garden (somehow my strawberries made it through the California winter!), yellow sweet limes, and rimmed each glass with ginger sugar. 

After assembling the drinks on the porch for photographs, I heard a voice from across the street. "Honey, there's a strange lady taking photographs of drinks!" My neighbors who were doing yard work had spotted me. I was so busted. 

I brought them each a mule and instructed them to drink.

"Spicy!"

I told them the ingredients and explained the idea behind the drink. We chatted, standing in the driveway and enjoying cocktails in the afternoon heat. The neighbors and I decided we needed to get a set of lawn chairs, or a used couch to set in the yard and totally make this a regular thing. I voted to do the setup on their lawn, but was outvoted. Lawn cocktails. It could work, right?