This is not your average mule

Story and photo by JANNA ZEPP

One of my great-grandfathers from my paternal line, Price Rodgers, was a Methodist circuit preacher in the latter part of the 19th century.

When he wasn’t preaching, he was farming in East Texas.

Back in the day before tractors, he plowed his fields with a mule team. Price loved red mules. He liked that they handled heat better than horses, and he liked them unbroken because they’d plow a field in twice the time of a tame pair.

By the time the wild ones tamed down, he’d sell them at twice or thrice what he paid for them.

Mules, to Price, were indispensable.

To Price’s farmhands, however, the mules proved quite the challenge.

My grandmother related to me the tale of a recently hired woman who had gone to town for the family to pick up supplies in a buckboard pulled by a not-quite-tame pair. Gammy remembered standing on the front porch of the family home watching a dust storm come down the road and a woman hollering, ‘WHOA, MULE! WHOOOAAAAA!!!” somewhere in the midst of that cyclone. The mules dragged that buckboard up to the barn at the speed of light, stopping just inside the entrance to the barn, leaving about a foot’s distance between the top of the barn and this woman’s head.

Bless her heart, she quit that job on the spot.

This story is not about that kind of mule. This is about my favorite mule; one that I discovered in my regular travels up to the thriving metropolis of Waco. My husband and I love to visit Pivovar, the Czech-themed boutique hotel and restaurant downtown. Adrian, a friend and one of the bartenders, made my kind of mule for me and I was hooked. I love mezcal and this cocktail now ranks among my top favorites.

I can’t say that this delightful wild elixir will help you plow a field in twice the time of a more-tame version of the cocktail, but it will cool you off as the late summer continues into autumn.

Like this cocktail? Let me know at Janna.Zepp@gmail.com.

Mezcal Passion Mule

Ingredients
1.5 ounces mezcal
1 ounce lime juice
1 ounce passion fruit syrup
.5 ounce ginger syrup
1 ounce sparkling water

Directions: Add ingredients to shaker with ice and shake to chill. Strain over fresh ice into a chilled rocks glass (or copper mug). Garnish with a lime wedge.