A HIGHBALL FOR LUCIUS B.

By Dan Sabo *Originally Appeared in “El Morocco ‘No-News’ Vol. 2, No. 1, 2026”

The idea of the “highball,” on paper, seems like it should be a simple thing. A blanket term, covering any mixed drink composed of a spirit and a larger-volume mixer—say, for instance, a screwdriver, gin & tonic, or Seven & Seven, to name a few—and served in a straight-wall glass. But the truth is, the highball is far from simple or basic, and its history spans the globe, with roots tracing as far back as 1767, when chemist Joseph Priestly first charged water with carbon dioxide in Leeds, England, inventing soda water. A mix of this newfangled bubbly water and brandy came soon after, becoming the preferred afternoon pick-me-up of the day.

As preferences and fashions changed, the pick-me-up’s base spirit changed to Scotch whisky, becoming the scotch & soda, a benchmark of Anglophonic drinking habits to this day. In traditional Scotch whisky tasting, adding flat water had always been recommended to “open up” the spirit. When bubbly water came on the scene, the carbonic acid in the water created a slightly citrus-sour taste, the carbonation and effervescence adding a new dimension to the Scotch whisky.

No one knows for sure where the highball got its name, but it may’ve derived from the high glass in which a scotch & soda was served and “ball,” slang for a drinking glass in the 1890s. Others think it came from a railroad track’s metal ball, which, when lifted (a “high ball”), meant go. In any case, this new drink was just more fun, light, and inherently more sessionable than its heavy and dark whiskey-on-the-rocks counterpart; it became a fixture of the jet set in London and New York, especially in the nightlife scene at places like El Morocco. By the time El Morocco was opened, the moniker had come to cover any one-two combination of spirit and mixer.

In Japan, the highball, or haibōru is not a blanket term, but a hyper-specific concept. In the early twentieth century, Scotch whisky migrated to Japan via the education and vision of distiller Masataka Taketsuru, the mastermind behind both the original Suntory Whisky recipe and later his own distillery, Nikka. Soon after, the highball also migrated to Japan, settling most significantly into two places. First, it was served in izakaya restaurants, mainly due to its lightness and food friendliness. Then, it appeared in a small sect of bars known as “jazz kissas,” small cafés that emerged in Tokyo in the 1920s, equipped with record players, serving as communal rooms for listening to popular American jazz records too expensive for individuals to purchase. These flourished post-WWII, as homesick occupying American soldiers were desperate for a taste of Stateside culture. As kissa culture grew, with eighty jazz kissas pre-war and as many as 600 at their peak, the hallmarks of the cafés emerged, and they developed their own rhythm: a high-quality sound system, a reverence for the music, which often included periods of silence during record playing, and copious highballs and tea served to patrons who came to listen together. This was the closest an American could get to a swinging jazz club or American bar in postwar Japan, but the culture of conviviality and communal imbibing was the same, and the highball and music were the connective tissue.

But good things never last, and easier access to vinyl records in the 1960s and ’70s resulted in a significant decline in kissas in the latter half of the twentieth century. The 2020s have seen a distinct re-emergence of the concept, in the form of the “listening bar,” everywhere from Tokyo to Brooklyn to London, with people looking to take part in the communal listening experience. These bars carry the classic hallmarks the kissas created a century before, sometimes now to an exponential degree, including a high-quality sound system often curated by a professional sound engineer; reverence for the music often mandated and enforced, with a set of rules; and simple, elegant Japanese-style highballs (no overcomplicated cocktails of the 2010s allowed).

As with most Japanese culinary execution, the modern highball contains just a few ingredients, which are chosen and mixed carefully, with the final product presented austerely and precisely. The simplicity requires that it’s executed just so in order to come together well; because all the pieces are laid bare in the minimalist presentation, anything out of place will stick out like a sore thumb.

In Japanese highballs, the choice of whisky is of vital importance. Brands like Suntory have gone so far as to create a blend specific for highballs; Suntory Toki, for example, a blend of their celebrated single malts Yamazaki, Hakushu, and Chita marques, has a lighter body and brighter complexion, with notes of green apple, thyme, and vanilla-oak, and is meant to shine alongside the carbonation in a highball.

For the soda water, a level of fizz is critical, with bars even creating custom carbonation machines to be hyper-specific about the size and volume of their bubbles. For the layperson and for most bars where a custom carbonating rig is not in the cards, Topo Chico is the go-to, as it’s significantly more “bubbly” than any other readily available soda water on the market. (If you want to get nerdy, Topo Chico has 4.8 volumes of CO2 on average, compared to, say, a LaCroix, which runs around 2.8 volumes). The key to carbonation is low temperature, as CO2 dissolves better in cold liquids than it does in warm liquids; that’s why when you pour a warm soda, it goes flat quickly. Same rules apply here—keep your soda water as close to 34°F as possible to maintain that crisp fizz throughout the beverage.

Finally, the glass. Classical highball glasses are slim, straight-walled cocktail glasses with a sturdy base, measuring eight to twelve ounces, just a bit larger than your typical juice glass, but not quite as tall or voluminous as a Collins glass. The Japanese highballs are also often served in heavy-handled beer mugs. Either way, the glass must be frosted and very cold to aid in the temperature maintenance, and served over ice, ideally clear and one large piece. 

Add a spritz of lemon zest over the top to help bring out the citrus notes and further push the brightness of the whisky, and you have a classic Japanese highball.

*****

Our custom cocktail has a bit more pizzaz. To build on the highball’s base and create a special “Highball for Lucius B,” inspired by the fragrance, we took the key top notes and infused them into a tasty, sessionable cocktail. Peach, patchouli, and oakmoss become peach, clove and sage, if for no other reason than I don’t want to challenge you, dear reader, to try and find food- grade oakmoss for every highball. A dash of peach bitters plays nicely with the green apple of the Japanese whisky and makes a nice fruit base for a whisky cocktail. In lieu of a lemon twist, an atomized sage, clove, and lemon tincture over-top adds depth to the nose and helps pick up the thyme in the whisky, along with creating an edible nod to the patchouli and oakmoss of the “Lucius B” scent. With some citrus sour bite from the cold crisp soda water and a sage and lemon twist garnish, you have yourself a lovely cocktail for the evening, whether that’s listening to a 45 of “Kind of Blue” or dancing the night away at the club.

Either way, it’s full steam ahead with Lucius B.

Cheers,

DS

Highball for Lucius B

Equipment:

Chilled frosted highball glass

Ingredients:

2 oz. Suntory Toki

6 oz. Topo Chico

2 dash Bitter Truth Peach Bitters

2 sprays Sage, Clove, and Lemon Tincture*

Lemon twist, sage leaves for garnish

Ice spear or cubes

Instructions: Remove highball glass from freezer, add ice, a dash of bitters, then whisky. Add soda water. Spritz tincture over rim of glass. Garnish with lemon twist and sage leaves. Serve.

*Sage, Clove, and Lemon Tincture

Equipment: small non-aerosol atomizer

Ingredients:

1 whole lemon peel

24 sage leaves

15 cloves

12 oz. 151-proof vodka or Everclear

Instructions: Add lemon peel, sage leaves, and cloves to a jar or nonreactive container. Add vodka or Everclear, stir, and seal. Allow mixture to sit for 24 - 48 hours. Pour mixture through a fine mesh strainer, then a coffee strainer to remove fine particulate. Pour tincture into atomizer.