Mezcal Mule Recipe
Smoky mezcal with muddled cucumber, lime and passion fruit, topped with spicy ginger beer — a mule that tastes of fruit, smoke and heat at once.
- Category: Popular
- Glass: Highball glass
- ABV: 12%
- Difficulty: Medium
Ingredients
- Mezcal45 ml (1.5 oz)
- Fresh lime juice22 ml (0.7 oz)
- Passion fruit syrup22 ml (0.7 oz)
- Agave syrup15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Cucumber3 piece
- Ginger beer30 ml (1 oz)
How to Make It
- Muddle the cucumber slices with the agave syrup in a shaker.
- Add the mezcal, lime juice and passion fruit syrup, fill with ice and shake.
- Double-strain into a highball glass filled with ice.
- Top with the ginger beer and garnish with a cucumber slice, candied ginger and a pinch of chili powder.
Garnish
Cucumber slice, candied ginger and a pinch of chili powder
What it tastes like
Fruit notes come forward and smoke dominates the nose.
The technique
Shaking. Anything with juice, syrup, egg white or cream gets shaken: the shaker chills the drink and adds roughly 20% water, and that water is what takes the edge off. Twelve to fifteen seconds, until the tin frosts over. Under-shaking leaves the drink harsh because it never got enough dilution.
Glass and ice
A tall, narrow highball. The narrowness does real work — less surface area means the carbonation lasts longer and the ice melts more slowly.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Mezcal
- The Mexican spirit whose smoke comes from roasting the agave in a stone pit. It can stand in for tequila, but the smoke walks over everything else; starting half and half is the balanced move.
- Fresh lime juice
- Freshly squeezed lime. Bottled lime tastes cooked and flat; one lime gives about 30 ml. If you have none, half lemon and half grapefruit juice comes closest.
- Passion fruit syrup
- Passion fruit syrup. The seedy pulp is balanced with sugar; it is high in acid, so recipes that use it usually pull back on the lemon.
- Agave syrup
- Agave syrup. About a third sweeter than simple syrup, so use three quarters of the amount rather than a straight swap. It comes from the same plant as tequila and mezcal, which is why it sits so naturally with them.
- Cucumber
- The skin can be bitter, so thin slices work best; dropping slices into the shaker gives a cleaner flavour than muddling them.
- Ginger beer
- Ginger beer is non-alcoholic despite the name, which comes from an old fermentation tradition. It is far sharper than ginger ale, and ale does not replace it in a mule.
The Story
Created by Jim Meehan at PDT in New York in the late 2000s, and one of the drinks that introduced mezcal to a wider cocktail audience.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Mezcal Mule mixed?
- It is shaken and served in a highball glass.
- How strong is a Mezcal Mule?
- Roughly 12% ABV as served — right around a glass of wine — an aperitif or an early-evening drink.
- Can a Mezcal Mule be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a Mezcal Mule hard to make?
- Moderate. A shaker or mixing glass plus a strainer covers it.
759 recipes in your pocket
Cocktails and mocktails from 55 countries — ingredients, steps and the story behind each drink. Works offline too.
Similar recipes
Collections
Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.