Harvest Mule
A Harvest Mule is 50ml of bourbon, 15ml of apple cider syrup and 20ml of fresh lime juice built over ice in a copper mug, topped with 90ml of fiery ginger beer and stirred once, with a thin apple slice. About 2.0 UK units. It is our autumn mule. Bourbon replaces the Moscow Mule’s vodka and gives the ginger caramel and vanilla to work against. The syrup is cloudy apple juice reduced by half with demerara sugar, so the apple arrives concentrated and the drink is not watered down by juice. Cider means different things on either side of the Atlantic. Here the syrup is made from alcohol-free cloudy apple juice. Dry British cider can be reduced instead for a sharper syrup; boiling drives off most of its alcohol, though not necessarily all of it.
Glassware: Copper Mug
Garnish: Apple slice cut thin, added just before serving
Ingredients
50ml
Bourbon at 40% ABV. Its caramel and vanilla give the ginger something to push against; vodka would only carry it.
15ml
Cloudy apple juice reduced by half with demerara sugar, so alcohol-free. At 15ml it carries the apple; take it to 10ml for a drier drink.
20ml
Squeezed the same day. It is the only sharp note in the glass, so keep the full measure.
90ml
A fiery ginger beer; most are under 0.5% alcohol. Pour it last and slowly so the carbonation survives.
Instructions
Squeeze the lime juice the same day.
Fill a copper mug or highball glass with cubed ice.
Add the bourbon, apple cider syrup and lime juice.
Top with the ginger beer, poured slowly down the inside of the mug.
Stir once, gently, to mix without losing the fizz.
Add a thin apple slice just before serving.
Our version
Our own autumn mule: 50ml bourbon, 15ml apple cider syrup made from cloudy apple juice and demerara, 20ml lime and 90ml ginger beer. No published original exists.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Make the syrup from cloudy apple juice. Simmer 500ml until it has reduced by half, stir in 200g of demerara until it dissolves, then cool, bottle and refrigerate. It keeps for about two weeks. Pick a ginger beer with real heat. Bourbon and syrup are both sweet and the lime is the only sharp note, so a mild ginger beer leaves the drink tasting of apple and whiskey and little else. For a drier mule, take the syrup down to 10ml. It is concentrated enough that the smaller measure changes the balance clearly.
Behind the Harvest Mule
Flavour Profile
An Autumn Mule
The Harvest Mule is a house recipe, not a recovered classic. It takes the mule’s frame of spirit and lime under ginger beer in a copper mug, and changes two things: bourbon for vodka, and an apple syrup for plain sugar.
Those two changes move the drink from summer to autumn. The bourbon brings caramel and vanilla, the syrup brings baked apple, and the ginger keeps both from turning heavy.
Why It Works
Ginger is hot and dry, bourbon is sweet and warm, and apple sits between them. The lime is the only acid, and at 20ml it is twice the Moscow Mule’s measure because there is more sugar to cut. Reduced syrup adds apple flavour without the volume of juice, so the drink stays sharp rather than thin.
Cider or Apple Juice
In the United States, cider often means cloudy, unfiltered apple juice. In Britain it means the fermented drink. Our syrup uses cloudy apple juice, which makes it alcohol-free and leaves the bourbon as the only source of units.
A dry British cider reduces into a sharper, tangier syrup. The simmer drives off most of the alcohol but not necessarily all of it, so anyone avoiding alcohol entirely should stick to juice.
Demerara is worth the trouble. Its toffee note sits with the bourbon’s caramel, where white sugar only sweetens.
Two Mules Side by Side
Our Moscow Mule beside the Harvest Mule
Spirit
- Moscow Mule
- 45ml vodka
- Harvest Mule
- 50ml bourbon
Lime juice
- Moscow Mule
- 10ml
- Harvest Mule
- 20ml
Sweetener
- Moscow Mule
- None beyond the ginger beer
- Harvest Mule
- 15ml apple cider syrup
Ginger beer
- Moscow Mule
- 120ml
- Harvest Mule
- 90ml
Vessel
- Moscow Mule
- Copper mug
- Harvest Mule
- Copper mug or highball
Garnish
- Moscow Mule
- Lime wedge
- Harvest Mule
- Thin apple slice
UK units
- Moscow Mule
- About 1.8
- Harvest Mule
- About 2.0
| Element | Moscow Mule | Harvest Mule |
|---|---|---|
| Spirit | 45ml vodka | 50ml bourbon |
| Lime juice | 10ml | 20ml |
| Sweetener | None beyond the ginger beer | 15ml apple cider syrup |
| Ginger beer | 120ml | 90ml |
| Vessel | Copper mug | Copper mug or highball |
| Garnish | Lime wedge | Thin apple slice |
| UK units | About 1.8 | About 2.0 |
The Drier Version
Cut the syrup to 10ml and choose the hottest ginger beer you can find. Either change alone dries the drink; together they make a mule that suits a long evening better than the sweeter standard build.
How to Serve It
Ice first, then bourbon, syrup and lime, then the ginger beer poured slowly down the side. One gentle stir mixes it without knocking out the fizz. Cut the apple slice thin and add it last so it stays crisp.
For the vodka original, make a Moscow Mule; for spiced rum under ginger beer, a Pack Mule.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Whiskey (Bourbon)Bourbon is an American whiskey whose mash is at least 51% corn, matured in fresh charred oak barrels and bottled at 40% ABV or higher, the figure our recipes use. The fresh charred wood gives it its vanilla, caramel and colour, and the corn gives a rounder, sweeter spirit than rye. It is the base of 26 of our recipes, more than any other whiskey.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Harvest Mule?
Is the apple cider syrup alcoholic?
Can I make the syrup with real cider?
How do I make apple cider syrup?
What changes from a Moscow Mule?
Do I need a copper mug?
How strong is a Harvest Mule?
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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, who was trying to sell Smirnoff vodka to Americans who did not drink it, and Jack Morgan of the Cock ’n’ Bull in Los Angeles, who had ginger beer he could not shift. Other accounts put the first one in a New York hotel bar, or credit the Cock ’n’ Bull’s bartender. 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.
Pack Mule
A Pack Mule is 50ml of Expedition Spiced Rum, 20ml of fresh lime juice and 10ml of sugar syrup over ice in a copper mug, lengthened with 100 to 120ml of ginger beer and given one stir, then finished with a lime wheel and a mint sprig. About 2.0 UK units from the rum at 40% ABV. It is our mule. The published spiced rum mule, the Jamaican Mule, is a short drink: 75ml of ginger beer, a quarter-measure of lime and a rich syrup. The Pack Mule takes the same four parts and opens them out, with the lime doubled to 20ml and the ginger beer run long, because Expedition Spiced Rum brings its own sweetness and the vanilla, cinnamon and clove in it want room and acid rather than more sugar. The ginger beer decides most of it. A dry one with real heat suits the rum, and the syrup is set by how sweet the bottle is: the full 10ml for a dry ginger beer, none for a sweet one.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026