Alton Brown's Latest Viral Instagram Confirms This Is 2016's It Cocktail

Cocktail aficionado Alton Brown Instagrammed himself sipping a moscow mule on a hot LA day, and it went viral within an hour. It's understandable why; moscow mules (vodka, ginger beer, and squeezed lime wedges served on the rocks in a copper mug) have quickly become the It cocktail of 2016. It's not a coincidence! Let's take a brief look at why and how this classic cocktail is suddenly so mainstream.

It comes down to marketing. Just as LaCroix has become the sparkling beverage everyone is drinking (thanks to the company's brilliant campaign), so too has the modest moscow mule. Smirnoff lays claim to inventing the beverage in 1941, alongside Cock 'n Bull, a British pub and ginger beer maker on the Hollywood Sunset Strip. John G. Martin, president of the alcohol company that owned rights to Smirnoff at the time, found himself commiserating with the bar owner, Jack Morgan. Vodka wasn't popular in the States and Martin hadn't found a way to make it appeal to the American palate. Morgan also struggled to market out his ginger beer.

The two collaborated, and the moscow mule cocktail was born (on the East Coast) at the Chatham Bar in New York City. So what's with the copper mug? According to the book Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, Morgan's girlfriend owned a copper product company, supplying them with a surplus of copper mugs. Martin toured bars around the States encouraging bartenders to make the beverage and serve it in a copper mug. In 1947, when Polaroid cameras were invented, Martin bought one and photographed bartenders with their moscow mules. He'd bring a copy of these photos to show the next bartender as proof the trend was catching on. It was the Instagram of the '40s!

Fast forward to today. Moscow mules have steadily increased in popularity since 2014 as a backlash against complex drinks. Take a look at Google Trends, and popularity peaked in December 2015 and continues to rise in an upward swing. The New York Times pulled data from GuestMetrics, a platform that studies consumer spending, and reported moscow mule orders are as popular as the Bloody Mary and the mojito.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the moscow mule, and you better believe Smirnoff is milking this momentous year by saturating the cocktail market once again. Jay Sethi, Smirnoff's vice president of marketing, had this to say in a press release on July 22: "In only a few short years, the Moscow Mule took America by storm and gained popularity in cocktail culture, paving the way for many other popular mixed vodka drinks including the Screwdriver, the Bloody Mary, the Gimlet and more. Today, 75 years later, the Moscow Mule is experiencing a comeback as one of the most popular cocktails in the U.S., and naturally, the makers of Smirnoff vodka are celebrating."

According to The New York Times, there's plenty more proof that 2016 is the year of the moscow mule, mostly due to "the industry . . . promot[ing] it heavily" through branded copper mugs, which vodka companies happily dole out to bars, free of charge — and bars are happy to accept as copper is extremely expensive. Tales of the Cocktail, a popular cocktail festival in New Orleans, deemed 2016 the "year of the mule." In my own life, two parties I attended last week (at separate bars) both served moscow mules as the signature drink, of course with a crafty twist by using unique vodkas and artisanal ginger beer. According to Michele Foley, POPSUGAR Fitness senior editor (and our resident cocktail expert), "you can get a moscow mule everywhere," even in remote locations like her mom's small town in Hawaii.

And the ginger-lime flavors have trickled into the food world as well. Kettle brand potato chips just released moscow mule-flavored chips days ago. Spoiler: they are actually quite tasty! Yes folks, the moscow mule's explosive popularity is all thanks to a genius marketing campaign. Do you feel duped?