It’s a cocktail that has little to do with four-legged pack animals and even less to do with Russia’s main city – and there are differing accounts of its origins.

The first origin tale was documented in a piece in the New York Herald Tribune in 1948, as described by the ever reliable Wikipedia entry for this cocktail.

Quoting the newspaper article it states the following: “The mule was born in Manhattan but “stalled” on the West Coast. The birthplace of “Little Moscow” was in New York's Chatham Hotel. That was back in 1941 when the first carload of Jack Morgan’s Cock ‘n’ Bull ginger beer was railing over the plains to give New Yorkers a happy surprise… The Violette Family helped. Three friends were in the Chatham bar, one John A. Morgan, known as Jack, president of Cock ‘n’ Bull Products and owner of the Hollywood Cock ‘n’ Bull Restaurant; one was John G. Martin, president of G.F. Heublein Brothers Inc. of Hartford, Conn., and the third was Rudolph Kunett, president of the Pierre Smirnoff, Heublein's vodka division.

As Jack Morgan tells it, “We three were quaffing a slug, nibbling an hors d'oeuvre and shoving toward inventive genius”. Martin and Kunett had their minds on their vodka and wondered what would happen if a two-ounce shot joined with Morgan's ginger beer and the squeeze of a lemon. Ice was ordered, lemons procured, mugs ushered in and the concoction put together. Cups were raised, the men counted five and down went the first taste. It was good. It lifted the spirit to adventure. Four or five days later the mixture was christened the Moscow mule.”

However, in 2007, in an article in the Wall Street Journal, this version was disputed. The alternative theory was put forward that the drink was created by Morgan’s bartender, Wes Price, with the specific intent of clearing out the cellar which was crammed with unsold vodka and ginger beer.

Reporting on this drink on Liquor.com in 2011, Gary Regan cast some light on how and why the Moscow Mule came to be sp synonymous with a copper mug. Regan refers to the book Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh. Mr Morgan, owner of the Cock ‘n’ Bull brand apparently had a girlfriend who owned a company that made copper products – among them a surfeit of copper mugs.

It’s important to note that pure copper mugs are not the best idea to serve the drink in because the acidic components can create a chemical reaction and lead to copper toxicity – so it’s important that they are lined with an inert inner surface.

There are also a host of Mule alternatives, with names that reflect the spirit used in its making. An Aussie mule swops out the vodka for Bundaberg rum, French mule takes on Cognac and angostura bitters, London mule uses gin while a Kentucky mule is obviously Bourbon and a Mexican mule has Tequila.