Whiskey Highball
Whisky and soda over hard, clear ice, built with care. The Japanese highball is the proof that two ingredients and attention can be a serious drink.
Built to the standard modern spec; not yet tested in our kitchen. How we test.
The recipe.
Scaling adjusts quantities only. Prepare shaken drinks in individual portions.
Let’s make a good drink.
Fill a highball glass with large, clear ice — one tall spear or three big cubes — and stir the ice alone for a few seconds to chill the glass. Pour off any meltwater.
Add the whisky and stir gently a dozen times to chill it.
Top the glass with fresh ice if needed, then pour the soda slowly down the side of the glass.
Give it one quiet lift with a bar spoon from the bottom — no stirring — and serve. Express a lemon twist over the top if you like, and discard it.
A thoughtful finish
- The whole drink is cold and fizz. Freeze the glass if you can, use the hardest ice you have, and open the soda just before you pour.
- The Japanese ratio is about one to three or one to four whisky to soda; with a richer whisky, one to two is closer to the English whisky-and-soda.
- Do not stir after the soda goes in. One lift of the spoon integrates it without knocking out the bubbles.
Common mistakes
- Small, wet, cloudy ice. It melts fast and the drink is flat and watery in minutes.
- Stirring the finished drink. Every turn of the spoon costs carbonation.
- A heavily peated whisky unless you want a smoky highball. The drink magnifies the spirit; choose one you like diluted.
A few good questions.
Which whisky?
A light, clean blended whisky is the classic — the Japanese drink their standard blends this way. A soft bourbon or an unpeated single malt also works. Save heavily sherried or peated whiskies for neat drinking.
Why is the ice so important?
Because the drink is mostly water and the ice is the water. Clear, dense ice melts slowly and keeps the drink cold and fizzy; cloudy freezer ice melts fast and flattens it.
Lemon or no lemon?
Japanese bars usually serve it plain or with a twist expressed and discarded. A lemon wedge squeezed in makes a different, more American drink.
What is a Mizuwari?
The same idea with still water instead of soda — whisky and cold water over ice, stirred. It is the other classic Japanese serve.
Variations
- Gin and Tonic — The gin highball.
- Whiskey Mac — Scotch and ginger wine.
- Scotch and Soda — The same drink on Scotch, usually stronger.
- Dark and Stormy — Rum and ginger beer, the spicy highball.
Where it comes from
c. 1890s; Japanese revival 2008 · United States and Japan
Contested. More than one origin is claimed for this drink. We show the competing accounts rather than pick one.
The highball — spirit and soda in a tall glass — appears in American bars in the 1890s, and both New York’s Patrick Duffy and the Adams House in Boston claimed it. Whisky and soda was already the English way of drinking Scotch. The drink as a craft object, though, belongs to Japan: Suntory had been selling whisky highballs since the 1950s, and in 2008 it relaunched its Kakubin blend with a highball campaign that rebuilt whisky drinking in the country. Japanese bartenders made a ritual of it — ice carved clear, glass frozen, soda poured without stirring — and that ritual is now copied in good bars everywhere.
Sources
- David Wondrich, Imbibe!, 2015 (book)
- Suntory company history, 2008 (archive)
- Robert Simonson, Modern Classic Cocktails, 2022 (book)
Strength. About 1.43 US standard drinks at an estimated 12.5% ABV, estimated from the ingredients and technique, not measured. What that means.
A little character in every sip.
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