THE QUAFF: Ginger Cilantro Mule Edition

Last week, my dearest friend Meeshie visited me here in Los Angeles, and she absolutely insisted that we make a cocktail (I was not very hard to persuade). I handed her my favorite cocktail book, Organic, Shaken and Stirred by Paul Abercrombie and told her to pick out a recipe. After some casual browsing, Meeshie decided on our beverage of the evening: the Ginger Cilantro Mule.

A variation on the classic Moscow Mule, the GCM (as I like to call it) is all about the refreshing play of ginger and lime, but unlike any other “mule,” I’ve tried, this one features not vodka, not gin, but rather TEQUILA. Color me intrigued…

First we must make a ginger simple syrup. The recipe calls for a thumb-sized piece of ginger, and we are shocked by literally finding a THUMB-SIZED piece of ginger.

It’s the most perfect thumb-sized specimen of ALL TIME.

We peel and slice our perfect thumb of ginger. It soon goes into a saucepan with equal parts water and sugar.

Ginger simple syrup commencing.

Meanwhile, time to have more fun with ginger. Here are a few pieces that will be soon muddled.

When the syrup is complete, we strain out the ginger and reserve the rest. We’re supposed to let it cool, but Meeshie and I have dinner plans; so we accelerate the process and just move forward with HOT syrup.

Into the shaker go the fresh ginger and the simple syrup. Muddling ensues.

Our booze for the evening: reposado, anejo, and regular Don Julio (to be used in that order), and Canton.

I’ve also juiced some limes with my new (and inferior) citrus juicer.

Further evidence of lime destruction.

Some cilantro, ready to play.

The cilantro finds a new home in the shaker. Below it are four shots of reposado tequila (we quadrupled the recipe – and when we ran out of reposado, we moved to the anejo), two shots of Canton, three teaspoons of agave nectar (we didn’t quadruple this ingredient for fear of over sweetening), and two ounces of lime juice.

Some ice to cool things down.

Shake time.

We ready two pint glasses with ice. Meeshie requests less ice because it makes her too cold.

We hit a snag when we are unable to remove the top off the shaker. I curse the heavens above for this cruel fate.

All works out well in the end, and I pour a double serving into each glass.

Intense eyeballing.

Almost done.

We top off with just a touch of ginger-ale.

I prepare to take on the ginger cilantro mule.

Slurp slurp.

Yeah. It’s good.

Meeshie happily drinks from her glass. She too is quite happy.

A sad attempt at a garnish.

The Verdict: so very good. I loved this cocktail. It was smooth, refreshing, and full of herbal goodness. I was a big fan of the cilantro presence; although, Meeshie felt that it actually got in the way. I suppose it all depends on how big of a cilantro person you are. I rather enjoyed it QUITE A BIT.

Nevertheless, we both felt it was a massively successful cocktail, and quite frankly, we were able to suck them down in no time. It’s hard to believe that in each glass were three shots of booze. Definitely a solid pre-gaming option…