Cocktails in Context : The Japanese Toki Highball
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Okay I am honestly obsessed with the Japanese Highball right now. Something about the simplicity and precision with which it is made is just so compelling! This cocktail is also comfy anywhere which I absolutely love - it is just as suited to hanging out by the campfire as it is to a dimly lit upscale bar. Dress it up for a special occasion or combine its two straightforward and accessible ingredients anywhere with ease. This versatile, simple, and delicious cocktail is always a solid choice.
We decided to make this cocktail on New Years. Like many others, 2021 was another challenging year. It is also the year we got married, bought a home, and made big strides in our work. Needless to say, we were exhausted, and a few days before New Years Eve we spotted Toki Japanese whisky at the store and found our perfect final cocktail for the year.
Japanese Highball
A highball is a category of drink where an alcoholic spirit is combined with a non-alcoholic mixer. A gin and tonic is an example of another well known highball. A highball is commonly what you order or make when you want to keep things simple. In fact, my go to order in a dive bar is a whiskey club. There is a certain ritual to throwing a shovel full of ice into an old fashioned glass, pulling a well bottle from under the bar, and counting your whiskey pour as you simultaneously spray bubbles in the glass from the gun (I’m feeling nostalgic for it right now talking about it honestly), but a Japanese Highball keeps the poetic simplicity, and ups the ritual and attention to detail.
The Japanese highball combines Japanese whisky and sparkling water over ice with a citrus garnish at a particular ratio. Some common examples include 1 or 1.5 parts whisky to 4 parts club soda and 1 part whisky to three parts soda. It is important that the Japanese Highball is served very cold, and to achieve this many bartenders chill every component, including the whiskey and glassware themselves, to achieve the ideal temperature. Carbonation is key, and it is evident in the way the drink is prepared that every effort is made to retain significant bubbles.
How to make the Toki highball
The desire for the coldest, bubbliest highball possible creates the need to fill a chilled highball glass with large, square, ice cubes and pour 2 oz whiskey over the ice. Next, use a bar spoon to stir the whiskey and ice 13.5 times clockwise. Then, carefully and smoothly pour the sparkling water down the side of the glass, avoiding the ice as much as possible in order to retain carbonation. Stir the cocktail gently 3.5 more times to incorporate, and then express citrus over the top or garnish with fresh mint.
From what I hear this ritual is not always used these days, but I love learning about it! Hopefully we will be able to see it in action if we are able to take our honeymoon to Japan as we hope to do! [update : we didn’t do Japan for our honeymoon, but we did get to go to cocktail bar hopping in Paris and scotch tasting in Scotland!]
Ice for a toki highball
With a drink like this, clear ice makes a difference. A clear, large ice cube will melt more slowly and avoid diluting the cocktail, messing with the ideal ratio. It also looks so amazing with clear ice cubes - you can see the difference in the photo at the bottom of this post where I made the cocktail with one clear ice cube and one large cube I made in a regular silicone mold. They both look great and work well but I was so excited to watch the whisky pour over the clear cubes! This is my first time using the ice cubes from the clear ice mold I got two of for Christmas (thanks fam!), I am super excited about what else they’ll work well with, because I feel like they made a huge difference in this!
Clear ice making all the difference!
The Whisky - Suntory Toki Whisky
For whisky it has to be Japanese to be a highball, and perhaps the most well known Japanese whisky to use in this cocktail is Suntory Toki Japanese Whisky. Toki whisky is a blend of whisky from Suntory's three distilleries - Yamazaki, Hakushu and Chita. Toki means time in Japanese, and the whisky is sweet, light, citrusy, and spicy. It really is perfect for a highball.
Suntory whisky can also be credited with bringing a renewed energy to the Japanese highball cocktail. They have created a lightweight glass stein for serving the cocktail in, because they were originally marketing to beer drinkers. They opened highball bars and designed a highball machine that combines Toki whisky and club soda to guarantee perfect highballs every time straight from a tap. These machines can be found in bars all over Japan now and definitely some bars in the United States as well. We got to try one at Sparrow & Wolf during one of the best meals either of us had ever had, the night before we got married, and it was so delicious.
You all know I usually go for vintage barware, but unique modern glassware also has a special place in my heart and this Calder glassware from Crate and Barrel is just too cool - makes everything look special!
Bubbles for a Japanese highball
Alas at home I usually use a Sodastream for soda water. My other favorites include Topo Chico and mineragua. I’ve read that Q is the most highly carbonated prepared soda water but I haven’t tried it yet! Have you? Let me know in the comments below. Once you’ve got your beautiful bubbly concoction combined, you garnish with citrus. Express the citrus over the cocktail and discard or drop it right in. Fresh mint is another great garnish for this cocktail!
If you are camping or just aren’t in the mood for a ritual and want to throw Japanese whisky on ice and top it with club soda without all the ritual, I won’t tell.
I hope you love this versatile, simple, yet beautiful cocktail! Let me know in the comments below! And if you make this be sure to let me know by leaving a comment or tagging kindred spirits on Instagram @ kindred.spirits.cocktails!
You can see the difference in ice in this photo the bottom ice cube is clear and the top ice cube was made in a regular silicone mold.
The Toki highball hangs out with our travel guidebooks!
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