Tract · Cocktails

Highball · Built in glass · Historical · complexity 1/5

High-Ball

Muckensturm treats the high-ball as a generic service pattern: spirit or liqueur over a large ice piece topped with soda, with ginger ale or sarsaparilla as alternatives for spirits.

Served in High-ball glass. Ice: Ice.

Variants (2)

Louis' Mixed Drinks with Hints for the Care & Serving of Wines by Louis Muckensturm (1906, p.63)

1 large pieceice — Icebase
0.5 bar-glassspirit — Liquor or liqueurbase
Soda water — Sodadilution
  1. Place a good-sized piece of ice in a high-ball glass, add about half a bar-glass of the chosen liquor or liqueur, fill with soda, and serve.

Ice: Ice

The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book by Albert Stevens Crockett (1935, p.87)

1 jiggerWhiskey base
Soda water — siphondilution
1 lumpice other
  1. Build in a tall glass and fill from siphon.

Ice: Ice

See also: Bermuda

The book notes ginger ale or sarsaparilla may replace soda for spirits, but not for liqueurs.