A perfectly festive drink for your next gathering that won’t cost you an arm and a leg: Cranberry Moscow Mules!
Y’all, if I see one more $17 cocktail out in bar I’m going to lose. my. mind. I appreciate a well-crafted cocktail, so I begrudgingly accepted when the standard price became around $10 a few years ago. All of a sudden a drink was not just a gin and tonic, it was local gin, made by people I actually kinda knew through a friend of a friend, and not gin they made in their bathtub, but real gin. Oh, and the tonic was made there. In the bar. And it was brown, which would have weirded me out except it was the most delicious thing ever, and garnished with a strawberry from the farm I drove by on the way there that shouldn’t have worked but it did. It did.
Craft Cocktails. They are such a wonderful thing. For $10. But for $17? For seventeen American dollars, I’ll stay home.
I’ll buy a bottle of real wine, from a region I recognize and chose with intention. For $17 I could buy a bottle of wine good enough to consider the minerality of the soil where the grapes were grown. I could!
Or, I could buy a cocktail, just one, in downtown Charleston.
It’s absurd.
So in the last year, I have been toying around with making cocktails at home. Not just “we’re watching football” vodka sodas, but fun cocktails, with good ingredients. They don’t show up on the blog too much because, frankly, you readers don’t seem to like when I post cocktails.
Cocktail recipes perform lower than other recipes, so I don’t post too many of them, because I love you, dear reader. I do. But you know what else I love?
Cocktails.
So today, a fun little recipe for a Cranberry Moscow Mule, and even if you get the fancy cranberry juice, real ginger beer, and vodka that doesn’t taste like rubbing alcohol, you can make a pitcher of these guys for under $17 for your next Christmas Party.
Update: I’ve had so many questions about these mugs!!! If you’d like to buy them, please use this link and you’ll be supporting my little blog at zero extra cost to you: Marianne’s Moscow Mule Mugs
- 5 ounces Ginger Beer
- 3 oz Cranberry Juice
- 2 oz Vodka
- 3 Grand Marnier Cranberries ( optional but fabulous )
- Pour all ingredients over ice and stir.
- Garnish with Grand Marnier Cranberries.
This looks delicious! And best of all I have all those ingredients in my house. As far as I’m concerned you can keep the cocktail posts coming!
Haha, Thanks! I love cocktails, and of course I love readers, but I really love cocktails. Wait, did I say cocktails twice? …
WIthout even knowing that I love moscow mules, I would want to drink this based on the picture alone. I am going to need to whip these up ASAP
I actually like these better than the regular ones. They have the bite of the ginger beer, but it’s not quite as … ginger intense … as the regular ones. 😀
I love this! I recently discovered my love for Moscow Mules, so this is perfect! And festive enough for the Holidays 🙂
XO.
Madison
southernedgeblog.com
I know, I did too! We’re a little late to the moscow mule party but I’m glad I joined at all!
Sounds refreshing! And as always, beautiful photos!
Thank you! I love how festive they are for Christmas, but I think I’ll probably give them a try in the dead of summer too, because you’re right — they are super refreshing and crisp!
Love this recipe! So many different delicious ingredients! I don’t think I could have only one, pinned!
Awesome! Thank you, Jessica! Yeahhh, I definitely drank both of the ones in the pictures lol
Sounds delicious! Nice twist on the normal Moscow mule, I think I have to buy cranberry juice.
I really love the addition of Cranberry juice. I think it balances out the spiciness of the ginger beer. It will probably be my new mule standard.
This looks lush! I could totally drink one of these right now.
It’s like you said, lets take everything amazing for the holiday and put it in a copper mug. YES PLEASE
Right?! I love how festive they are!
Those sound so good. I love the copper mugs, I’d love to have some like that they look really stylish!
I do, too! Not gonna lie — I borrowed the mugs from a friend and it PAINED me to give them back to her after making these!
I will be making these on Christmas day. They look great and I love that they don’t have a million ingredients.
I’m a huge fan of simple but wonderful. Fancy drinks are fabulous, but I don’t want to have to spend $60 on some weird bitters flown in from Spain just to make a recipe!
I’ve never had one of these! I need to try your recipe, and you are so right if you van make them better and for much less at home why not? They look gorgeous! X
The classic Moscow Mules are fun, but sometimes I find them TOO ginger-y ( I know ,totally the point of it, but oh well ). The cranberry juice cuts that ginger flavor just a little, and balances it out.
I love cranberry cocktails – and especially love the Grand Marnier cranberries in this one! Pinned to make later (tho I’d like to make it right now!!)
Haha yes I’m totally with you – $17 FOR A COCKTAIL?! insane right?! I don’t know if I’ve even accepted that $10 is a fair price. Definitely better to just make your own moscow mules at home! Just curious what kind of copper mugs are those? I’ve been looking at buying some for my cousin for xmas.
I’m not sure where the mugs came from — I borrowed them for a friend who received them as a gift. I have seen similar ones on amazon though. They look really similar to the Oggi Moscow Mule Mugs on Amazon though!
I fell in love with Moscow Mules awhile back. I am definitely going to try cranberry juice in them the next time that I make them! Yum!
Just made two for my husband and myself for the tired after Christmas Friday night Delicious. How do you make the cranberries to garnish?
I garnish them with my Grand Marnier Cranberries ( which I always seem to have floating around in the fridge anyway! ) Here’s the link: http://basilandbubbly.com/grand-marnier-cranberries/ Enjoy!
Do you just marinate the cranberries in grand mariner.
I brake them with a little heat and then add a mixture of grand marnier and simple syrup. You can read how here: http://basilandbubbly.com/grand-marnier-cranberries/