As summer approaches, we start looking for refreshing ways to cool down. Enter the highball, once one of the most popular ways to drink whisky.
Though it fell out of favor in the latter part of the 20th century, the highball is making a comeback, with whiskies designed specifically for the drink, high-quality mixers and even machines that take it to another level.
Let’s start with a few defining features of the highball. It is a deceptively simple cocktail to make. With only two ingredients, whisky and soda, along with ice and maybe a lemon peel, it’s hard to mess up. Still, you can elevate it.
Can a highball be made with vodka or tequila? If you swap soda water for ginger ale or tonic water, is it still a highball? Technically, yes, and your drink probably will be delicious. But, for this discussion, let’s stick with a highball made with any softer, Scotch-like whisky. Save the more aggressive bourbons and peaty Scotches for drinks with ginger ale.
Highball refers to the glassware used, as well as to the cocktail within. It also commonly is called a Collins glass — after the highball’s cocktail cousin, which introduces sugar and citrus to the party. A highball glass is tall, usually holding 10 to 12 ounces. This size can hold ice, whisky and soda. And, like a champagne flute, the tall shape helps slow the dissipation of the bubbles.
Speaking of those carbonated bubbles, there are several companies that have added quality mixers to the marketplace. Fever Tree club soda has a soft, persistent carbonation that is great for highballs. If your store doesn’t carry it, no worries. Try the old-school favorite Schweppes, named after the inventor of bottled carbonated water back in the late 1700s. Topo Chico, with its high mineral content, also makes a delicious highball.
We like two whiskies for our highball: St. George’s Baller, a single-malt American whisky; and Suntory’s Toki whisky.
Baller was created with the highball in mind. This whisky starts out aging in used bourbon and French oak barrels, then is finished in the company’s house-made umeshu (Japanese plum liqueur) barrels. The result is a light whisky, with contrasting sweet and briny characteristics.
If Baller was inspired by the Japanese love of the highball, then the Suntory company is a good place for us to focus. When Suntory wanted to expand its Toki brand, it invented a machine that took the highball to a new level. The Toki highball machine chills the whisky and integrates it into carbonated water that is five times the pressure of normal club soda.
The Toki machines are rare, though, so we recommend this Japanese-inspired technique: Fill your highball glass with large cubes of ice. Add 2 ounces of whisky and 4 ounces of club soda. Using a bar spoon, lightly agitate the whisky and soda at the bottom, and then give it two or three stirs as you pull the spoon from the glass. A lemon peel is a tasty, but optional, touch.
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