maikai mule

1 oz Matusalem Gran Reserva 15 Year Rum
1/2 oz Becherovka Liqueur
1/2 oz Pineapple Syrup
1/2 oz Orgeat
1/2 oz Lime Juice

Shake with ice and fine strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice (I assume a copper mug would be preferably here if one were available). Top with 1+ oz housemade ginger beer, garnish with mint, and donate a straw.

Last week, on the way home from my DJ gig, Andrea and I caught a nightcap at Bergamot in Somerville. For a drink, bartender Paul Manzelli recommended the Maikai Mule that fellow bartender Kai Gagnon had created. The drink was a liberal play on the Mai Tai that had been crossed with a ginger beer-based Mule. The last Mule of this sort that I had was the Dead Man's Mule at Drink. These two Mules shared a similarity in their intense herbal liqueurs to match the biting ginger beer; while the Dead Man's Mule utilized absinthe and allspice dram, the Maikai Mule called forth clove and cinnamon notes from Becherovka.
The mint garnish contributed so greatly to the nose such that the clove and ginger aromas in the drink were hard to detect at first. The sip was a fruity combination of the lime juice and the pineapple syrup; the pineapple notes continued on in the swallow where they joined the aged rum, clove, ginger, and other spice elements. Interestingly, the Becherovka paired splendidly with the ginger beer such that the clove and ginger blended together into a unitary tingly note.