Tequila Buck

Blanco tequila, lime, and ginger beer — the late 19th-century Buck applied to tequila, ginger ale producing a lighter result than the Mexican Mule's ginger beer.

The Tequila Buck applies the Buck cocktail template — spirit, ginger ale or ginger beer, and fresh citrus in a tall glass over ice — to tequila, producing a long drink that engages ginger's root spice with agave's earthiness in one of the spirit's most natural two-element flavor relationships. The Buck format has been documented in American professional bartending literature from the late 19th century, with its distinguishing characteristic — the mandatory combination of both ginger and citrus alongside the base spirit — separating it from the simpler highball format. The tequila-ginger pairing's commercial popularity was demonstrated most visibly by the Mexican Mule, which adapted the Moscow Mule's copper mug and ginger beer formula for tequila and became one of the most ordered cocktail variations through the 2010s. The Buck version's use of ginger ale rather than ginger beer produces a lighter, less intensely spiced result: commercial ginger ales contain less actual ginger extract and more carbonated sweetness than craft ginger beers, producing a more sessionable, less confrontational tequila-and-ginger drink suited to extended casual consumption rather than the focused spice intensity of the Mexican Mule's ginger beer base.