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Create a personal and useful gift of a custom travel mug! A personalised travel mug is a great gift that most ages can enjoy. Simply choose your design, select your photo and receive your special creation!

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The Best Travel Mug

Trey French

By Trey French and Anna Perling

Hot drinks are a daily staple for many, and just as important as the beverage is the travel mug that keeps it warm while you’re on the go.

After a decade of testing travel mugs, we still recommend the Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug for most people.

It keeps drinks hot for hours, and its locking lid stays securely closed, even when you toss the mug into a bag. We also have another option, which fits better in most cup holders, for use while you’re driving.

Everything we recommend

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Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug

The best travel mug.

This mug offers the best heat retention, plus one-handed usability and a locking, leakproof lid, which makes it especially useful if you carry your mug in a bag or backpack.

Buying Options

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Stanley Classic Trigger-Action Travel Mug (16 ounces)

A wider mug for drivers.

This wider mug fit securely in our testers’ cup holders, and its spill-proof lid design is good for rough roads. It doesn’t retain heat as well as the Zojirushi mug—a fact that some people might actually appreciate.

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OXO Good Grips Water Bottle Cleaning Set

For cleaning your mug.

This bottle-cleaning set has a skinny straw brush and a looped detail-cleaning brush, which are all you need to keep your travel mug squeaky clean.

The 16-ounce Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug keeps beverages hot for hours, even in cold environments. It has a well-designed exterior, an easy-to-clean nonstick Teflon interior, and a foolproof lid-locking mechanism that you can operate with one hand.

The mug is lightweight and slim, but it may not fit snugly in some cup holders. However, thanks to its locking lid, we were comfortable carrying it around in a bag, without worrying about leaks.

This Zojirushi model is pricey for a travel mug, but this is the mug we trust most not to spill in a bag, and it’s hard to put a price on that. (Actually, that would be about the price of a new bag, laptop, phone, and whatever else happened to be in there at the time.)

It’s also available in a 20-ounce version .

Like other Zojirushi products, it comes with a five-year warranty.

The 16-ounce Stanley Classic Trigger-Action Travel Mug is wider and fits better in most car cup holders than the Zojirushi mug. The lid has an auto-sealing button that prevents spills, and when you drink, it won’t block your view of the road ahead.

Although this Stanley model may not keep drinks as hot as the Zojirushi mug, some people might prefer such results—we’ve heard many complaints over the years of the Zojirushi mug keeping drinks too hot.

Both the mug and the lid are dishwasher safe, but the lid has fewer parts than that of our top pick, so it is easier to disassemble and hand-wash if you prefer to clean it that way.

And let’s not forget that these things need cleaning regularly. That’s why we also have a bottle-brush recommendation for when you need to clean out the gunk .

The research

Why you should trust us, who this is for, how we picked and tested, our pick: zojirushi sm-sf stainless steel mug (16 ounces), also great: stanley classic trigger-action travel mug (16 ounces), also great: oxo good grips water bottle cleaning set, other good travel mugs, the competition.

We’ve been testing travel mugs since 2013. Previous versions of this guide were written and researched by Séamus Bellamy and Anna Perling.

In 2023, staff writer Trey French wrote the latest version this guide. He covers travel and outdoor gear, including thermoses , ice cleats , and thermal underwear . He gained an appreciation of high-performing insulated drinkware while spring camping in Colorado when the temperatures dropped below freezing.

In addition to conducting our own tests, we’ve done the following:

  • We spoke to engineers and industry professionals about mug design, ideal coffee and tea drinking temperatures, and the best way to find out how long coffee will really stay good in a travel mug.
  • We watched a mass of online videos on what other professional and consumer reviewers had to say about travel mugs.

Travel mugs, as their name implies, are for people who want to take beverages on the go. Compared with paper or Styrofoam cups, a good travel mug offers better insulation and safeguards against leaks or spills. In addition, you can save money in the long run and reduce your environmental impact by using a travel mug.

Tumblers, thermoses, and insulated water bottles are all close cousins to the travel mug but have some important differences:

  • Tumblers have sipping ports that don’t seal as tightly or securely as on travel mugs . They also have wider mouths for adding ice cubes. Many also have straws for sipping cold beverages.
  • Thermoses usually lack the slim size and lid-design features that make travel mugs portable and convenient. With a thermos, instead of popping open a lid to take a sip, you need to unscrew the cap and pour liquid into an open cup to drink.
  • Insulated water bottles are geared toward keeping drinks cold and don’t have sipping ports like travel mugs do. Instead, they often have screw-top lids that require two hands to open and close, or they have sport caps, which aren’t great for hot drinks.

Here’s what we prioritized when deciding which travel mugs to test:

Vacuum-insulated: All of the mugs we consider are double-walled and vacuum-insulated .

Capable of retaining heat all day: We look for mugs that claim to keep hot beverages drinkably warm for at least eight hours.

Made of stainless steel: Stainless steel is more durable than glass or ceramic and retains heat better than plastic. It’s also the best material for vacuum insulation and therefore heat retention.

Leakproof and spill-proof: A leakproof seal keeps a closed lid from leaking if the mug jostles. A spill-proof seal guards against spills should you drop the mug or knock it over; such seals typically incorporate a push button, like the one found on the Stanley Classic Trigger-Action.

Easy to use: A good mug should be easy to both open and close, as well as to lock and unlock, with one hand. It should also be easy to disassemble for cleaning. We look for mugs that advertise these features or have reviews indicating that they are easy to use.

Between 12 and 20 ounces in capacity: We’ve concluded that 16 ounces is the optimal capacity for a travel mug, as it delays the need for a refill while remaining portable and easy to hold. Some people prefer wider mugs that don’t rattle in cup holders, while others like slimmer mugs that take up less space in backpacks or bags. We test both styles.

After considering the everyday wear and tear that a travel mug might go through in real-world scenarios, we devised tests to mimic those scenarios:

Leak and spill tests: We test mugs for leaky seals by shaking them upside down, dropping them, and carrying them in bags.

Drop test: We drop each mug three times from a height of 4 feet onto asphalt.

Insulation test: We fill each mug with boiling water and then measure how quickly the water cools over eight hours, checking every hour.

Ease of cleaning: We wash each mug, following instructions; we also take apart their lids and wash those. We check for lingering smells and to see if the finish on the mug is harmed.

Cup holder compatibility: We test the mugs in cup holders of varying sizes (2.75, 3.5, and 3.75 inches in diameter).

A blue Zojirushi SM-SF Stainless Steel Mug.

The 16-ounce Zojirushi SM-SF Stainless Steel Mug is the best travel mug for keeping drinks hot for long periods of time. This mug also comes in a 20-ounce size. (The SM-SF is the current model; these model designations often change from year to year, but the mugs themselves stay the same.)

It kept our drinks the hottest. According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, the best temperature range for coffee is 145 to 155 degrees Fahrenheit. After sitting for eight hours in the Zojirushi mug in a 72-degree room, our water measured 158 degrees—hotter than in any other mug we tested. That translates to hot coffee over a full workday. (If you’re opening the mug more frequently than once an hour, however, it might cool a bit faster.)

It won’t leak. It has sturdy, leakproof seals and a simple locking mechanism. Just close the lid, switch the lock into position, and you’re guaranteed that the top won’t pop open when you don’t want it to—when you’re carrying the mug in a bag, for instance.

An open lid on the Zojirushi mug.

It’s easy enough to keep clean. The nonstick interior helps to prevent odors and stains, though the mug’s instructions do warn against storing milk or fruit juices in the mug. (If you prefer drinking from a vessel that doesn’t have a nonstick coating, you might consider the Zojirushi SM-KHE , which has an electro-polished stainless steel interior.) The narrow girth makes it hard to get a sponge inside, but using a bottle brush circumvents that problem. You can disassemble the plastic lid to clean out any gunk that might be lodged in hard-to-reach places, although the small plastic and silicone parts can be difficult to get on and off the lid.

The Zojirushi mug laying on its side.

It’s durable. Though this mug developed a few scuffs in our drop tests, it acquired no more than the other mugs we tried, some of which fared far worse. Zojirushi backs the vacuum insulation of its stainless steel mugs with a five-year limited warranty, and the company sells individual replacement parts online .

It’s simple. The Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug has an attractive design that’s minimalist yet eye-catching in its simplicity.  The 20-ounce version comes in only one color (navy), but our pick, the 16-ounce version, comes in three (navy, pale pink, mint blue).

How the Zojirushi mug has held up

The Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug might be the single most commonly owned and used product among Wirecutter staffers; it has traveled in many crowded bags, backpacks, and purses without any problems. One staff member did report that after eight years of use, hers finally developed a leak. Another colleague says that their mug has survived drops onto cement (once from a third-floor balcony) without suffering more than a dent.

Zojirushi specifies hand-washing only, but we know of several mugs that have survived accidental trips through the dishwasher without any noticeable decrease in performance, though the external paint has flaked as a result.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The Zojirushi mug is sometimes too good at insulating. We’ve found that if we pour fresh coffee directly into the mug, the liquid can stay scalding hot for hours. To prevent burning your mouth, let your beverage cool a little before closing the lid.

It’s not cup holder friendly. This model, which is more narrow than a typical travel mug, did not fit snugly in our testers’ car cup holders. If you prefer a travel mug with a larger circumference, check out our also-great pick.

It isn’t spill-proof. Though the SM-SF is leakproof, it isn’t spill-proof like our also-great pick; the design lacks an automatic seal to prevent liquid from spilling if you drop the mug while you’re drinking.

A white Stanley Classic Trigger-Action Travel Mug.

The 16-ounce Stanley Classic Trigger-Action Travel Mug is our recommendation for use in a car, as it’s a great spill-proof mug that keeps drinks hot and fits in a cup holder.

It’s designed for drivers. Wider than the Zojirushi mug, this Stanley model fit more securely in our testers’ car cup holders. The top of the mug is narrower than the base, though, to help reduce heat loss through the lid. (Experts told us that the lid is where a double-walled mug loses the most heat.) And the design has no pop-up lid to bump your nose or block your eyes while you’re drinking.

A close-up of the cap of a white Stanley Classic Trigger-Action Travel Mug.

It’s spill-proof, unlike the Zojirushi mug. You do need to hold down a button to keep the sipping port open to drink from the mug, which may be frustrating to some people. However, this design prevents spills—whether from rough roads, say, or if you accidentally knock the mug over while reaching for it—since the mug closes automatically. Other mugs we tested, such as the Contigo Autoseal Transit and West Loop (both former runners-up), had similar buttons, but the button on the Classic Trigger-Action was easier to press and hold. Unlike the Zojirushi model, this mug has no lock to secure its lid, but it never leaked in our tests.

It’s tough. This mug endured our drop tests, sporting only light scuffing on the plastic lid and minor dents at the side of the base of its body. Like Zojirushi’s five-year warranty, Stanley’s lifetime warranty covers only manufacturer defects, not damage to mug components due to accidents or wear. Should you damage the lid or simply lose it, you can buy a replacement lid .

It’s dishwasher safe. Both the mug body and the lid can go in the dishwasher. The lid has some hard-to-reach nooks and crannies, so be sure to disassemble it for the best cleaning results. Stanley’s lid has fewer pieces than Zojirushi’s lid and is easier to take apart.

You have more color choices. If you care about colors, the Classic Trigger-Action comes in many—about a dozen at last count. This mug also comes in a 20-ounce size .

It doesn’t keep drinks hot as long as our top pick does. The Classic Trigger-Action can’t keep your beverages quite as hot for quite as long as our top pick can, but that might be a plus for those who complain that the Zojirushi mug keeps drinks too hot. When we boiled water and let it sit in this Stanley mug, the water took only three hours to cool to 158 degrees (whereas water in the Zojirushi mug took eight hours to reach that temperature). After eight hours, the water in the Classic Trigger-Action measured 132 degrees—26 degrees cooler than the water in the Zojirushi mug. If you drink your beverages quickly or don’t want to wait for them to cool down before sealing your mug, the Classic Trigger-Action may be a better option for you.

The OXO Good Grips Water Bottle Cleaning Set is the best bottle-cleaning set. It comes with a large bottle brush, a skinny straw brush, and a looped detail-cleaning brush, all kept together on a handy ring so you won’t lose any of the parts. The set is dishwasher safe, and we found that it works well for anyone looking to remove gunk from travel mugs and other hard-to-clean items.

A GSI MicroLite 500 Flip travel mug.

If you want a mug with a locking lid for about half the price of our top pick: Consider the GSI Microlite 500 Flip , which keeps liquids almost as hot as the Zojirushi mug and has a similar one-handed flip top with a lock.

However, when we dropped this GSI mug to the ground when the lid was unlocked, the lid popped open and spilled coffee everywhere—and the exact same thing happened when we dropped it a second time. Eventually, we dropped the mug enough, accidentally, to break the lid; GSI does sell replacement lids.

This mug, which has a large sipping port, also has a higher flow rate than our picks, and may require more careful sipping when the beverage is really hot.

An MiiR 360 Traveler.

If the Zojirushi mug is out of stock: You might look into the MiiR 360 Traveler , which in our tests kept drinks almost as hot and resisted denting just as well as our top pick. When it’s unlocked, its sipping port allows you to drink from anywhere on the lid’s circumference. We decided not to make it a pick because we struggled to decipher whether the sipping port was open or closed—which in turn led to spills. Unlike some twist-to-open 360-degree ports, the MiiR 360 Traveler’s lid has a push button for operation that forms the center of the lid, and at a glance, it looks nearly the same whether closed or open.

The mug is also available in a flip-top version called the Flip Traveler , but we’ve found flip-top lids prone to breaking during our drop tests. The mug bodies for the 360 Traveler and the Flip Traveler are the same, and the lids are interchangeable, in case you buy one and then decide that you’d like to try the other.

We’ve considered and evaluated several other Zojirushi travel mugs throughout our testing. Here’s a breakdown:

  • Zojirushi SM-WR : Almost identical to the SM-SF series, this version has an integrated gasket, which reduces the total pieces to clean. We like it almost as much as our top pick. However, it dispenses a little faster than the SM-SF, which is good for cold drinks but can be too much for really hot drinks.
  • Zojirushi SM-YAE : This 16-ounce mug costs a little more than our main pick. It comes with an electro-polished interior, like the Zojirushi SM-KHE, but has a shape that’s stouter than other Zojirushi mugs and short enough to fit under the spout of a single-cup brewing machine. In our tests, however, it fell short of our picks in insulating performance: After eight hours, the water temperature had dropped to 100 degrees, 58 degrees cooler than the water in our top pick.
  • Zojirushi SM-SHE : We were reluctant to test this mug due to persistent stock issues. Zojirushi sent us one to try out anyway, but it broke during our drop test.
  • Zojirushi SM-JHE : We opted not to test this mug because it has a wide-mouth, screw-off lid.
  • Zojirushi SM-JTE : We also elected not to test this model, which has a tea-leaf filter, due to its screw-off lid.

The JoeVeo Temperfect Javabliss 16 Travel Mug brings a scalding drink down to a drinkable temperature and holds it there by using a third layer in its wall to capture excess heat and then release it over time. It isn’t leakproof or spill-proof, though.

The 17-ounce Kinto Travel Tumbler insulates well—so well that it was the third-best contender at insulating in our tests behind the Zojirushi SM-SF and GSI Microlite 500 Flip. Drinking from it requires fully removing the lid, though, and finding a place to put the lid.

After dismissing previous iterations of the Hydro Flask travel mug, we tested the 20-ounce Hydro Flask Coffee Cup with Flex Sip Lid , and it was a clear improvement over older models. It kept drinks hot for about a half day, and it resisted denting better than about half of the other tested mugs. The lid requires two hands to open and close, however, so it can be tough to open while you’re distracted, and it has a tendency to “burp” a small amount of liquid when you rotate the lid from closed to open.

The 16-ounce OXO Good Grips Thermal Mug with SimplyClean Lid resembles—and insulates about as well as—the Hydro Flask mug we tested, keeping drinks hot for a half day. It also shares that model’s flaws, requiring two hands to open and close, and burping some liquid.

The Klean Kanteen Insulated Wide Mouth Water Bottle was a previous runner-up in this guide, as well as a former insulated water bottle pick, but we found that the lid occasionally leaked when we left the bottle on its side overnight.

The 18-ounce Purist Mover with Scope Lid insulates nearly as well as our picks and has a 360-degree sip lid, which lets you drink from any side of the mug. It requires two hands to open and close, though.

We broke the flip-top lid of the 20-ounce Welly Traveler , as well as the glued-on product-label plate on the bottom of the mug, the first time we dropped it.

The 12-ounce Ketiee Travel Mug is cheaper than most mugs we looked at, and we wondered what we’d get for the price. It kept drinks hot for about two hours during our tests, scoring near the bottom. Our main complaint is that the molding process left a pointy knob on our test unit, right above the drinking port, that pressed into our testers’ noses. Also, the product page states that it’s spill-proof—and we found that it wasn’t, whether the flip-top lid was open or closed.

The battery-powered Ember Travel Mug 2 promises to keep your beverage at a specific temperature (up to 145 degrees) for three hours—if you remember to charge it. Without the battery, it scored at the bottom on our insulation test; we also managed to break its inner seal during our drop test. Although we like the standard Ember Mug 2 (read more in our mug warmers guide ), we can’t recommend this even more expensive sibling.

The Contigo Autoseal West Loop Travel Mug was one of our previous runners-up. Like the Stanley Classic Trigger-Action , it has a button that you need to push before you can drink. The West Loop didn’t hold up as well in our drop tests as the Stanley model did, and we found its vertical push button harder to use than the one on our current also-great pick.

This article was edited by Ria Misra and Christine Ryan.

Hongbin Bill Ma, director, Center of Thermal Management at the University of Missouri , phone interview , September 22, 2017

Michael Dickey, professor of chemical engineering at North Carolina State University , phone interview , September 26, 2017

Meet your guides

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Trey French

Trey French is a staff writer at Wirecutter covering outdoors gear. A trail runner, backcountry skier, and long-distance backpacker, he has reviewed gear for Treeline Review and advised wilderness travelers on lightweight backcountry equipment at Katabatic Gear. He resides in California’s Eastern Sierra, where scenic desktop backgrounds are born.

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Anna Perling

Anna Perling is a former staff writer covering kitchen gear at Wirecutter. During her time at Wirecutter, she reported on various topics including sports bras, board games, and light bulbs. Previously she wrote food and lifestyle pieces for Saveur and Kinfolk magazines. Anna is a mentor at Girls Write Now and a member of the Online News Association.

Further reading

A CamelBak Podium water bottle.

This Inexpensive Water Bottle Is Meant for Cyclists, But It’s Great for Travelers, Too

by Christine Ryan

The Camelbak Podium is affordable, lightweight, and perfect for packing.

Six of our favorite mugs shown side by side.

Our Favorite Mugs

by Jackie Reeve

Our Wirecutter home team is passionate about the vessels they drink them out of. Here are the mugs we can’t get enough of.

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How to Clean a Travel Mug or Water Bottle

Don’t want your coffee to taste like yesterday’s brew? Give your travel mug a good deep clean—and do the same for your insulated water bottle, too!

Two photos of the Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug in illustrated polaroids.

We’ve Recommended This Travel Mug for a Decade. It’s Still Going Strong.

by James Austin

Our longtime favorite travel mug keeps drinks piping hot, and the nifty locking lid makes it virtually spill-proof.

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Copper Mugs | Wholesale Copper Mugs | Bulk Copper Cups | Moscow Mule

Wholesale Copper Mugs for Moscow Mules. Order the Best Cups Bulk. Custom Engraved Mugs.

Real Moscow Mule Copper Mugs

Looking for something specific? We offer a variety of copper items for all your needs, including copper shakers, jiggers, stirrers, straws, and, most importantly, the copper mug, which is a popular choice and our best seller. Each one is thoughtfully designed to add a touch of elegance and panache to your bar, home bar, or that charming little section on your countertop. If you consider yourself a cocktail aficionado, then you’re at the right place.

Why Copper for Moscow Mules

Temperature consistency: The high conductivity of copper ensures that as you sip, your experience remains consistent from the first sip to the last.

Copper reactivity: When you drink a Moscow mule in a pure copper mug, the reaction between the ingredients and copper can create more bubbles, which can make the drink experience more enjoyable.

Insulation and aesthetic: A hammered copper mule mug not only offers a unique and classic look, but the small air pockets between its dents also help keep the drink inside insulated from the outside air.

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Who Really Invented the Moscow Mule and Why Is It in a Copper Mug?

An East Coast vs. West Coast battle we're ready to settle.

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MarkHatfield / Getty Images

The Moscow Mule’s most famous component isn’t an ingredient, it’s the copper mug that traditionally holds the simple cocktail of vodka, ginger beer, and lime. It’s the mug’s burnished sheen that set the drink apart in the early days of the cocktail revival when vodka-based drinks were considered passé. 

The mug is the very reason the Moscow Mule exists in the first place. Where this began is up for debate, however. 

While some people trace the post-Prohibition cocktail’s origins to Los Angeles, others insist the drink was created in New York City.  

“It kind of comes off as a Biggie vs. Tupac, East Coast vs. West Coast kind of argument,” says Gina Hoover, bartender and consultant for CURE in New Orleans. “But I’m not surprised at all why the argument exists. If you ask an American to name five drinks, 90% will probably name the Moscow Mule as one of the five,” she says. “If you’re a city, and a drink has that kind of power, you’d naturally want to take credit for it.”

There are shared traits to each city’s tale. Both pin the drink’s creation to 1941, a relatively modern date compared to other cocktails with convoluted beginnings. They also stake claim to some of the same players, including a struggling-at-the-time vodka brand that’s now a household name. The theories part ways from here.

New York: Three guys walk into a bar…

According to the New York theory, the Moscow Mule stems from Midtown Manhattan’s Chatham Hotel. 

A Los Angeles-based beverage executive named John “Jack” Morgan was in town to promote his own Cock ‘n’ Bull ginger beer, a product that shared a name with the Hollywood bar he also operated. 

He was hanging out with a couple of industry folks — John Martin, president of the now-defunct G.F. Heublein & Brothers distillery and distributor, and Rudolph Kunett, president of Hublein’s vodka division, Smirnoff. After a couple of drinks, the trio wondered what would happen if they combined vodka, ginger beer, and a squeeze of lime juice. Deliciousness ensued.

They named their creation the Moscow Mule. Shortly thereafter, they purchased 500 copper mugs embossed with the phrase “Little Moscow.”

Los Angeles: Pick one

There are two Los Angeles origin stories to consider. 

Morgan and Martin show up as in the first account. Instead of Kunett, they’re joined by Sophie Berezinski, a Russian woman living in Los Angeles, struggling to find buyers for the 2,000 solid copper mugs she designed. 

The story goes that one day, she stumbled upon the Cock ‘n Bull bar, where Morgan and Martin were hanging out and trying to figure out how to move their ginger beer and vodka, respectively. The trio met, brainstormed, and the drink was born. 

“I just wanted to clean out the basement. I was trying to get rid of a lot of dead stock. It caught on like wildfire.” — Wes Price, head bartender, Cock ‘n’ Bull

The second theory may be more logical as it comes directly from Cock ‘n’ Bull’s head bartender, Wes Price, and may be a familiar tactic to anyone who’s had experience running a bar. 

In a story published in the Wall Street Journal in 2007, this new theory arose with a quote from Price claiming that he had invented the drink to try to clear ginger beer bottles out of the Cock ‘n’ Bull’s basement. 

“I just wanted to clean out the basement,” said Price. “I was trying to get rid of a lot of dead stock. It caught on like wildfire.”

While this comes close to being proof, it’s still just a claim with nothing concrete to back it up.

Which one’s right?

The drink first showed up in print in 1942, when Inside Hollywood gossip columnist Edith Gwynn mentioned the Moscow Mule as the “craze in the movie colony.”  

An account of the Moscow Mule’s New York origin story from influential food writer Clementine Paddleford would appear in the New York Herald Tribune in 1948. However, Paddleford’s piece mentions a quote from Morgan and references how Los Angeles kept the drink alive after the drink stalled. It’s plausible that Gwynn’s proclamation could be about the drink’s resuscitation instead of its creation.  

Such messiness is expected when it comes to old-school drinks. 

“It’s the same with pretty much any older cocktail,” says Brynn Smith , bar director for Bar Next Door in West Hollywood. “You’re never going to find anything that’s the equivalent of someone going ‘Hear ye, hear ye, here’s the origin story.’”

“When you look at the style of the Moscow Mule, it makes no sense that it would originate in New York. A story about the creation of a drink with vodka, ginger beer, and lime fits much better in Los Angeles.” — Brynn Smith, bar director, Bar Next Door

While the drink’s beginnings are technically up for debate, Los Angeles still has a much better claim to the Moscow Mule’s origin story. This is largely due to the drink itself, which has more in common with the fruity, refreshing drinks of Los Angeles' then-fledgling tiki bar scene than the spirit-forward cocktails typically created in the Big Apple.  

“When you look at the style of the Moscow Mule, it makes no sense that it would originate in New York,” Smith says. “A story about the creation of a drink with vodka, ginger beer, and lime fits much better in Los Angeles.” (It should be noted that Bar Next Door is across the street from where Morgan’s Cock & Bull once stood.)

Of course, the Moscow Mule’s refreshing deliciousness provides the legs needed for the debate to continue. 

This brings the conversation back to the copper mug. Its ability to keep a drink cold longer than glass made it an essential part of the drink for decades. These days, modern techniques like using better quality ice and chilled ingredients make the drink less dependent on the mugs. Bar Next Door, for example, serves their Mules in a glass. Still, there is respect for the mug’s role in the drink’s rise to prominence.  

“Overall, the mug these days is a show pony,” says Hoover. “But historically, it’s the reason the drink works.”

That’s true whether the drink originated on the West or the East Coast. But it was likely the West Coast. Sorry, New York.

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