Scotch Highball
Scotch, soda, soul
The British highball in its purest form — scotch, soda, ice. Smoke and grain whisper through the dilution; the soda doesn't drown the spirit, it spaces it out. A drink built for long evenings.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 oz Scotch
- 4 oz Soda Water
Method
Fill a chilled highball glass with cold ice. Add scotch. Top gently with cold soda water. Stir once. Express lemon peel over the drink and drop it in.
Highball category documented in Chris Lawlor's The Mixicologist (1895). Spirit shifted to Scotch after French phylloxera crisis decimated French vineyards in the late 1880s, displacing brandy. English origin: emerged from late-1880s London gentry preference for Scotch with carbonated water. Per Difford's Guide encyclopedia entry on highballs (diffordsguide.com/g/1086/highballs/story). Competing American origin claims exist: Patrick Gavin Duffy claimed introduction in 1895 near the Lyceum in New York, and Tommy Dewar asserted invention in 1891 on Broadway, though both rely on personal memoirs without independent documentation.