Cocktail · Medium strength
Japanese Highball
Whisky and soda, built with obsessive care: the simplest drink, done perfectly.
How to order it: Chilled glass packed with ice, cold soda poured gently down a bar spoon, one stir. Lemon peel if you like.
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The recipe
- 1½ oz Japanese whisky
- 4–5 oz very cold soda water
- Chilled highball glass packed with ice
- Pour soda gently; stir once
- Lemon peel, optional
The story
The highball reached Japan with the American occupation after the Second World War, and Japan made it its own: whisky and soda, built with near-religious care. The glass is chilled, the ice packed tight, the soda poured cold and gently so the bubbles survive, and a single stir finishes the job. By the 2000s the drink had slipped out of fashion, until a 2008 Suntory advertising campaign made it popular again, particularly with women, and bars specializing in highballs followed in the early 2010s. It is now a fixture of izakaya menus, often poured from dedicated highball taps. It endures because it proves that precision, not complexity, is what makes a simple drink great.
Adjacent pours