Gin Gin Mule
A Gin Gin Mule is 52.5ml of London Dry gin, 30ml of ginger beer, 30ml of simple syrup, 22.5ml of fresh lime juice and two mint sprigs, one muddled in the shaker and one kept for the garnish. It is shaken hard, double strained into an ice-filled highball and finished with the second sprig. About 2.1 UK units, all from the gin. Audrey Saunders created it in 2000 in New York, per Imbibe, which prints her recipe. The measures are Imbibe’s, converted from ounces. It is a Mojito and Moscow Mule hybrid built on gin.
Glassware: Highball Glass
Garnish: Mint sprig set in the ice, the second of the two sprigs
Ingredients
52.5ml
Imbibe prints 1 3/4 ounces, which is 52.5ml. Saunders asks for a juniper-forward London Dry. Counted at 40% ABV.
30ml
One ounce, as Imbibe prints it. Saunders made her own; a bought one should be quality and not too sweet.
30ml
One ounce of 1:1 syrup, as Imbibe prints it. With a bought ginger beer, cut it to 15ml or less.
Instructions
Fill a highball with ice and chill it.
Squeeze the lime the day you serve it.
Muddle one mint sprig with the simple syrup and lime juice in a shaker.
Add the gin, the ginger beer and ice.
Shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into the ice-filled glass.
Set the second mint sprig in the ice.
Source: its creator's published specification (Audrey Saunders, New York, 2000, published at Imbibe (imbibemagazine.com/recipe/gin-gin-mule-recipe/); measures and method as printed there (1 3/4 oz London dry gin, 1 oz ginger beer, 1 oz simple syrup, 3/4 oz lime juice, 2 mint sprigs; muddle one sprig with syrup and lime, add gin, ginger beer and ice, shake, double strain into an ice-filled highball, mint sprig garnish); ounces converted to ml. Difford’s recipe 843 prints an adapted version, not used). Last checked 1 November 2026.
Expert Tip
Muddle the mint lightly. Pressing it hard brings out bitterness the syrup cannot cover. Taste your ginger beer before you start. A sweet bottle needs less syrup, and that decides the whole drink. Double strain so that no mint fragments float in the glass.
Behind the Gin Gin Mule
Flavour Profile
A mule made to bring drinkers round to gin
Imbibe says Audrey Saunders created the Gin Gin Mule in 2000, when bars leaned on sweet mixers and cheap chip ice and few customers would drink anything but vodka. Imbibe calls it a Mojito and Moscow Mule hybrid, and quotes Saunders calling it an ambassador for gin.
Difford’s Guide dates the original to 2000 as well and places it at Beacon in New York City. Its own page now prints an adapted version with ginger liqueur and a longer top of ginger beer, and lists Saunders’ first recipe as muddled fresh ginger, gin, lime, sugar syrup and mint. We follow Imbibe, which prints her ginger beer version.
Choose the gin and the ginger beer with care
Saunders told Imbibe that the drink needs a juniper-forward gin to work, so a London Dry suits it. She favoured house-made ginger beer to keep the sweetness in check.
If you use a bought ginger beer, she advised cutting the simple syrup to half an ounce, which is 15ml, or less. Imbibe suggests a quality bottle that is not too sweet. With lime juice and fresh mint, this is a short, bright drink and the ginger beer sharpens it.
The ginger beer goes into the shaker with the gin, not on top of the glass. That makes the drink more integrated than a Moscow Mule, where the ginger beer is poured last.
The Gin Gin Mule beside its two parents
Gin Gin Mule
- Spirit
- Gin
- Mint
- 2 sprigs
- Ginger beer
- 30ml
- Method
- Muddled and shaken
Moscow Mule
- Spirit
- Vodka
- Mint
- None
- Ginger beer
- 120ml
- Method
- Built over ice
Mojito
- Spirit
- White rum
- Mint
- 6 sprigs
- Ginger beer
- None, soda water
- Method
- Built in the glass
| Drink | Spirit | Mint | Ginger beer | Method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gin Gin Mule | Gin | 2 sprigs | 30ml | Muddled and shaken |
| Moscow Mule | Vodka | None | 120ml | Built over ice |
| Mojito | White rum | 6 sprigs | None, soda water | Built in the glass |
The Moscow Mule gives it the ginger and the Mojito gives it the mint.
Make it at home
The Spirit
London Dry GinLondon Dry gin is a legal grade of distilled gin under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008, not a place. Regulation 110/2008 requires every flavour to come from redistilling neutral spirit with juniper and its fellow botanicals; afterwards nothing may go in except water, more neutral spirit and at most 0.1g of sugar a litre, and no colouring at all. The floor in 110/2008 is 37.5% ABV, our recipes count it at 40%, and it is the style behind our recipe lines that ask for clear juniper.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Gin Gin Mule?
Who created the Gin Gin Mule?
How strong is a Gin Gin Mule?
Is a Gin Gin Mule the same as a Gin Mule?
Can I use bought ginger beer?
What gin should I use?
Do I serve it in a copper mug?
Can I make it ahead?
Sources.
Correct as of 1 November 2026.
- Imbibe, “Gin-Gin Mule” (recipe and origin: Audrey Saunders, 2000, New York; 1 3/4 oz gin, 1 oz ginger beer, 1 oz simple syrup, 3/4 oz lime juice, 2 mint sprigs; shaken, double strained, highball; her advice on the gin and the ginger beer).
- Difford’s Guide, “Gin Gin Mule” (recipe 843: adapted version with ginger liqueur and a ginger beer top; history: created in 2000 by Audrey Saunders at Beacon, New York City; her original used muddled fresh ginger).
- NHS, “Calculating alcohol units” (the 14-units-a-week guidance and the units calculation).
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Moscow Mule
A Moscow Mule is 45ml of vodka and 10ml of fresh lime juice over ice in a copper mug, topped with 120ml of cold ginger beer and stirred once, with a lime wedge. Those are the IBA’s measures. About 1.8 UK units, all from the vodka. It is usually dated to 1941 and credited to John G. Martin of Heublein, which had bought Smirnoff and was left with a surplus of vodka, and Jack Morgan of the Cock ’n’ Bull in Los Angeles, who was pushing his own ginger beer, VinePair reports. The Oxford Companion gives other accounts: that Morgan and Martin devised it in New York, or that the Cock ’n’ Bull’s head bartender, Wes Price, did. The ginger beer decides the drink. At 120ml it is two thirds of the glass, so a soft, sugary one gives a soft, sugary Mule. Use the fieriest you can find, and keep the lime short: good ginger beer brings its own bite.
Mojito
A Mojito is 45ml of white rum, 20ml of fresh lime juice, two teaspoons of white cane sugar and six sprigs of mint, built in a highball. The mint is pressed gently with the sugar, the glass is filled with cubed ice, the rum and lime go in, and 75 to 100ml of chilled soda water tops it. About 1.8 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures. The IBA only says to top up with soda, so the 75 to 100ml is ours. Press the mint once or twice and stop. Torn leaves make the drink bitter and grassy, and that, more often than the rum, is why a Mojito disappoints. The sugar grains help: they bruise the surface of the leaf as you press, and the lime then carries the oil through the glass.
Gin Rickey
A Gin Rickey is 60ml of London Dry gin and 25ml of fresh lime juice over ice in a highball, topped with 100 to 125ml of cold soda water and finished with a lime wheel. There is no sugar in it. About 2.4 UK units. The Oxford Companion says the Rickey was popularised in the late 1880s at Shoomaker’s bar in Washington, D.C., by Colonel Joseph Kerr “Joe” Rickey, a lobbyist from Missouri, and the bartender George Williamson, that it began with bourbon, and that the Gin Rickey, first found in print in 1893, was the version most widely known by the mid-1890s. With no sugar to round anything off, the gin and the lime carry it. Squeeze the lime on the day and close to the drink: in our experience lime turns flat and bitter within hours, and a Rickey has nothing to hide that behind.
Mexican Mule
A Mexican Mule is 50ml of blanco tequila and 15ml of fresh lime juice in a copper mug or highball packed with ice, finished with 120ml of chilled ginger beer, one gentle stir and a lime wedge. About 2.0 UK units, all from the tequila. Swap the vodka in a Moscow Mule for tequila and this is what you get. No creator or date has been found for the change; the Mule has been rebuilt on most spirits since the Moscow Mule, which the Oxford Companion says purportedly originated at the Cock ’n Bull in Los Angeles in 1941. Tequila makes a better swap than most, because blanco is not neutral. It tastes of green, cooked agave with a peppery finish, and that pepper sits where ginger’s burn sits, so the two merge rather than compete. Lime keeps the pair bright. With 120ml in the glass, a fierce ginger beer matters more than anything else.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 1 November 2026