A couple of months ago we griped about the “Fort Lauderdale”, a drink featured via video on eHow which oddly enough has yet to be found elsewhere on the web. Consisting of a couple of light alcohols and the juices of a couple of orange and lime wedges, we were simply not satisfied. Enter Jamaican ginger beer, the tropical carbonated beverage with a punch, and one of Florida’s major exported citrus: the grapefruit (Florida produces 54% of the entire country’s grapefruit), and we have the FTL Mule.
In the 1940’s, a little thing called The Moscow Mule happened to America, tripling the sales of vodka production which was previously only available here or there by way of Polish and Russian immigrants. It simply consists of ginger beer, vodka, and lime juice. It rose to popularity in the 1950’s and has since produced several variations. There is the Three Legged Mule which substitutes vodka for Jameson Irish Whiskey, the Old Grove Mule which subs the vodka for rum, and numerous others. So why not an FTL Mule? After several attempts in our alcotory, the FTL Mule was born. Try it out and let us know what you think. PS- don’t forget your copper cup.
The FTL Mule:
1 part vodka
1 part fresh grapefruit juice
4 parts ginger beer soda
Here’s a video tutorial on how to make Fort Lauderdale’s newest drink. The intro and outro music is REBEL – Stampede and The Jameses – Rat People, respectively.
“The nicest thing about the mule is that it doesn’t make you noisy and argumentative, or quiet and sullen, but congenial and in love with the world. One wag of its tail and life grows rosy.” -Clementine Paddleford, New York Herald Tribune’s food critic, 1948
