My friend Sayeeda Carter is one of the most amazing people I know. She invited me over to celebrate her daughter Zuma’s birthday the other day and offered me a drink called the Moscow Mule. I’d never heard of it, and asked her what it was. She said it was a combination of ginger beer, lime juice, and vodka. She had me at ginger beer, but since, I don’t usually drink I asked her to leave out the vodka. I fell in love with the flavor combination!! Lime and Ginger is right up there with Lime and Honey. Classic!! It sent my Crucian brain into overload and I HAD to figure out a way to reinvent it with a Crucian spin!

After coming up with the concept of what flavors I wanted to marry to each other, I had to come up with a name! Moscow Mule works for the Vodka, but since I was going to substitute white rum (Cruzan of course) I wanted to create a more Crucian-ish name. I needed help!

So, I asked my friends on social media to help me come up with a variation on the theme and their responses where hilarious and a bit edgy. Some examples: Crucian Ginger Delight, Contessa Jennet, and Donkey Punch.In the end, I decided to just go with the Crucian Donkey! Safer. 😉

I bumped into a locally made Ginger Beer from St. John. It has no High Frutcose Corn Syrup and uses natural sugar as the sweetener. While I love the flavor, it needed a bit more of that ginger bite for my taste! So, I grated an obscene amount of fresh ginger into this version and muddled it with the grassy undertones of lemon grass to play up the citrus flavors just a bit more. The ginger beer’s bubbly effervescence and the twangy lime juice combine to make this a perfectly refreshing drink. I hope you enjoy this simple recipe. It makes one large serving, but can easily be doubled or portioned into two smaller servings.

As with everything this is all to taste, so if you enjoy a bit more lime or ginger or soda, or rum, add at will!!

Ingredients:

2-3  Limes or about 1/8 cup of lime juice

1 stalk of fresh Lemon Grass

6 ounces of Ginger Beer

1 inch knob of fresh Ginger (or to your taste)

1/4 cup of White Rum (or more or less to your taste)

Directions:

In a large cup, squeeze the limes.

Add the freshly grated ginger. I use a zester to get a very fine grate that doesn’t interfere with the drink too much.

Tear the lemon grass into pieces and add it to the lime ginger mixture. Then with the back of a spoon or  a muddler, bruise the leaves to release some more of its flavors.

Pour in the ginger beer and rum.

You can strain the drink before pouring it over ice, but I love the extra bits and pieces!

ENJOY!