Looking for the perfect drink for an end of summer party or festive occasion? There are always the quintessential classics, but it’s fun to customize some drinks with a new, signature twist. Summer is filled with such luscious fruits, the perfect opportunity to change up some of our favorites! One drink that’s especially adaptable is the Moscow Mule. You only need a few key elements for a successful Moscow Mule, and the rest of the ingredients allow for creativity and customization. Our current Moscow Mule obsession? Raspberry Watermelon Moscow Mules! See our recipe below.
The inspiration for this summer drink comes from two things: the wild raspberries are out in full force the garden this time of year, and we want an excuse to use our new pure copper Kamojo Moscow Mule Copper Flutes Set
Serve an end-of-summer Moscow Mule in these Kamojo Copper Champagne Flutes
WHY A PURE COPPER DRINKING VESSEL IS IMPORTANT FOR MOSCOW MULES
While you can serve a Moscow Mule in just about any kind of glass, copper is preferable. I prefer the Kamojo Moscow Mules because the pure copper has a tarnish resistant coating, so they stay beautiful and shiny without having to polish them, making them easy to clean. We previously touted what we love about the classic mug style Kamojo Moscow Mules in a beginning of summer Moscow Mule recipe, Kamojo also makes a copper champagne flute set for a festive, more formal, or celebratory event.
Kamojo Moscow Mule Copper Flute
I also like the pretty hammered pure copper with its’ tarnish-resistant high-shine and the beautiful shape, it adds something to the overall visual appeal of the drink and looks so distinctive!
The beautiful hammered copper pattern
The hammered copper of the Kamojo Champagne Flutes looks beautiful in many festive occasion tablescape color palettes
What’s a good type of drink to serve in a copper champagne flute? As a rule: if it’s bubbly or fizzy – copper kicks that carbonated or bubbly action it up a notch: any seltzer, soda, beer and of course, champagne or prosecco. Also, if it’s a drink best served cold, copper is your best bet.
The reason for this is copper does two things: it quickly makes cold ingredients colder, and bubbly ingredients bubblier. That’s why a copper vessel is a key to a good Moscow Mule, especially for a summertime drink.
Pure copper immediately chills the drink and keeps it cold on contact
Copper also enhances the flavor of some ingredients, enhancing the crisp, citrus and sour notes of go-to ingredients like ginger, lime, and cucumbers.
The pure copper in the Kamojo Moscow Mule Copper Flutes Set enhances the flavors of mint, berries, lime, and ginger and even makes vodka taste better
INGREDIENT CHOICES
A key ingredient to a Moscow Mule is ginger beer. Ginger adds the kick to the mule and is generally obtained from ginger beer or in a pinch, a quality brewed ginger ale. The ginger ale is sweeter, the ginger beer is tarter and for some, might need the addition of simple syrup. I also like to add a thin slice of fresh ginger as part of a garnish or muddled at the bottom of the drinking vessel, or if you prefer your drinks a bit sweeter, a ginger simple syrup can be used.
Copper enhances the taste of fresh ginger and ginger beers and ginger ales
FRUITY INCLUSION OPTIONS
Lime and ginger are the core classics of the mule, and plenty of fruits taste great with both of them.
Copper enhances the lime and berries taste and increases carbonation of ginger beers and ales
Store bought and wild raspberries are abundant and delicious this time of year.
Reed’s brews both a gluten-free ginger beer and ginger ales with real cane sugar and they are pretty good in mules. Their raspberry ginger ale has all the kick and fizzy features of a ginger beer. Raspberry Ginger Beer or Ale makes sense in a mule, as so many of the ingredients in a Moscow Mule taste great with raspberries: raspberry and lime, raspberry and mint, raspberry and ginger. But it still needs something to make it more summer, and a bit juicer and sweeter: like watermelon!
Ice cold Ginger Beer or Ale blends well with summer fruits and vodka
Raspberry Ginger Ale or Beer brews taste great in a fruity Moscow Mule when paired with fresh berries, mint, and lime
But lots of fruit combinations work: blackberries, lime, plum or pear and cantaloupe is a delicious alternative option, the cantaloupe and plum sweetly temper the ginger and the blackberries add a nice sweet but tart note. Or another option that goes surprisingly well with the ginger is lemon and fig!
Cantaloupe mellows the sharp ginger and citrus notes, mint and blackberries add a subtle sweet taste to the blend
Substitute cantaloupe juice for watermelon juice in the recipe below, and pair it with blackberries
Cantaloupe and blackberries paired with lime, mint and ginger taste wonderful in a copper flute
Summer fruits peak Ginger Beers and Ales and contrast nicely with the citrus flavor of the lime. Any berry works wonderfully to add some flavor to this traditional drink
THE STYLE CHICKS WILD RASPBERRY MELON END OF SUMMER MOSCOW MULE RECIPE
Just in time for your final farewell end-of summer soirees, summer picnics, a signature drink for summer weddings and celebrations, and for your end of summer blowouts.
Ready to make a summer fruit Moscow Mule?
INGREDIENTS:
- crushed or soft ice (see recipe below)
- Wild or purchased raspberries (or blackberries if preferred)
- watermelon
- mint sprigs
- 2 ounces vodka
- 4 ounces of ginger beer or tart ginger ale (we chose Reed’s Brewed Raspberry Ginger Ale and skipped the simple syrup)
- 3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
- fresh ginger (optional)
- 1/4 ounce simple syrup (optional)
Summer watermelon, fresh ginger, lime, combined with raspberries and mint fresh from the garden make for tasty combination
DIRECTIONS
- Juice the limes. Set aside remaining lime slices for garnishing.
- Make watermelon juice. Put watermelon chunks in a blender, discard pulp if desired, pour the juice into a jar or glass, put aside.
- Muddle together a few raspberries, and lightly press a mint leaf and a thin slice of ginger (if desired). Pour the resulting mix into the copper mule.
- Add the lime juice over the muddled mix.
- Fill mule champagne with crushed or slushie ice, over the muddled mix. Halfway through adding ice, I like to toss in a few more berries and then another squeeze of the lime to fully infuse the drink.
- Add the vodka
- Add the melon juice
- Add the ginger beer
- Add simple syrup if desired for sweetness
- Garnish with plenty of fresh mint sprigs, berries, lime or even a small watermelon wedge if desired!
Garnish with plenty of mint sprigs!
Close-up aerial view of the raspberries, mint and lime garnish in a Raspberry Melon Moscow Mule served in a Kamojo Moscow Mule Copper Flute
ALTERNATIVES
- Some may prefer a “neater” approach to mix the lime juice, vodka, melon juice, and in a shaker with the spent limes and giving the mix a good shake, then pour that shaker mix through a strainer into the ice filled mule glass, and then add the ginger beer to the mule.
- Adjust measurements to taste, some extra lime particularly enhances the berries and watermelon!
Extra lime enhances the berry and watermelon flavors, we added a halved lime to each mule
SOFT ICE
Notice reference to soft ice above. Soft ice is not as hard as ice cubes, but harder than slushie ice. It is often served at Drive-In type restaurants, which remind me of the summers of my youth.
Due to the lovely flute shape of the Kamojo Moscow Mule Copper Flutes Set, you may prefer crushed or soft ice. It is easy to make yourself at home with a big bottle of carbonated water like seltzer water.
Fill smaller to medium-size ice-cube trays with the seltzer, let them set a few hours. Right before using them, give them one or two hard whacks to break them up a bit. While soft ice tends to melt quickly in a regular drink, the copper mules keep them suspended in soft ice form for much longer without melting.
The Wild Raspberry Melon Moscow Mule in the Kamojo Moscow Mule Copper Flute
CONCLUSION
So many events and milestones are worth celebrating, engagements, promotions, graduations, weddings, just to name a few. Champagne is often the go-to libation for celebrating, but it is fun to change it up a bit with a mule themed drink, and it still feels festive and celebratory when served in Kamojo Moscow Mule Copper Flutes Set.
A traditional bakery not far from the Yale University Campus, we get all our special occasion cakes here! From now on, any event or celebration worthy of a bakery cake qualifies as an excuse to use the Kamajo Copper Champagne Flutes
Kamajo Copper Champagne Flutes are ideal as wedding flutes for the bride and groom or even the entire bridal party, or to serve appetizers such as shrimp cocktail.
Summer fruit-filled Kamojo Copper Moscow Mules Champagne Flutes: Icy cold, satisfying, festive, and definitively summer!
WHERE TO BUY
Find the Kamojo Moscow Mule Copper Flutes Set at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0LN1YQ/
Find the Kamojo Pure Copper Mug Set (seen below and featured here) at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06X8YPS1H
Kamojo Copper Mugs
Style Chicks received the Kamojo Moscow Mule Copper Flutes Set in exchange for our unbiased review. However, our experience with the product and the opinions expressed in this review are 100% ours.