The Whisky Highball

In 1895, C. F. Lawlor told bartenders to float brandy or whiskey over seltzer and a lump of ice. His “High Ball” is the earliest printed recipe under that name found in the site’s research.[1] Today’s whisky highball is familiar as whisky, soda water and ice in a tall glass. Nikka’s published method uses one part whisky to three parts soda, with a gentle half turn to finish.[11]

In short

• Nikka pours chilled soda gently and finishes with one half turn.[11]
• Kappeler’s 1895 book calls its version “Scotch Whiskey and Soda”, not “Highball”.[3]
• Tommy Dewar’s invention story is a legend, not an established account.[9][7]

Making a whisky highball

Start with the proportions: one part whisky to three parts soda. Nikka gives that ratio as a starting point, adjusted to taste, and builds its method around well-chilled soda and very little stirring once the soda reaches the glass.[11]

Recipe card: a small highball following Nikka’s method

The small measured serving below scales Nikka’s published ratio. The method is Nikka’s; the site has not tested the recipe.[11]

Blended Scotch reflects the drink’s documented historical association with that style. The quantities are an editorial scaling of Nikka’s ratio.[5][11]

1. Fill the glass to the brim with ice. Nikka advises rinsing frost from the ice before using it.[11]
2. Measure in the whisky, then stir about ten times, following Nikka’s method.[11]
3. Pour in the well-chilled soda gently, avoiding the ice as you pour.[11]
4. Finish with one gentle half turn, rather than another thorough stir.[11]

The distinction between those two stirs matters to Nikka’s method: whisky and ice get the initial stirring; soda gets only the gentlest movement. Nikka also says frost on the ice “will kill the carbonation”, its reason for rinsing the ice first.[11]

Use a measured serving, with water, food and breaks alongside it; nobody needs to finish the glass. Those choices do not remove the risks of drinking alcohol. People who are pregnant or trying to conceive, taking medicines that interact with alcohol, living with conditions made worse by alcohol or recovering from alcohol dependence should not drink. See the Responsible Drinking page for further guidance.

Glass, ice and proportions

A special branded glass is unnecessary for this specification. The Scotch Whisky Association lists the highball glass for highball cocktails and other long drinks; Nikka describes using a tumbler.[12][11]

The early books offer several shapes, too. Lawlor specified a thin ale glass, Kappeler a long thin glass, and Johnson a medium-sized fizz glass.[1][3][2] Choose one that comfortably holds the measured ingredients and ice. There is no compulsory outline to follow.

Begin with the published 1:3 ratio, then adjust to taste. To compare proportions, keep the whisky measure fixed and change the soda. That makes each adjustment deliberate, without making a larger serving the default.

For whisky served without soda, see neat, with water or on the rocks. For this highball, keep Nikka’s sequence in mind: whisky and ice first, chilled soda afterwards, then minimal movement.[11]

The whisky highball in the early books

“High Ball”, “Scotch Whiskey and Soda”, “HIGHBALL”: the early books describe a recognisable drink under different names. Their recipes distinguish three questions often rolled into one: when the drink appeared in print, when its name appeared, and who invented it.[1][3][2]

Lawlor’s order is striking. One lump of ice goes into the glass, followed by seltzer to within an inch of the top. The bartender then floats half a jigger of brandy or whiskey over it.[1] Compared with Nikka’s whisky-first method, this is a different way to build the drink.

Kappeler’s book, published in the same year, contains “Scotch Whiskey and Soda”, not a recipe headed “Highball”.[3] Calling it the first named Highball recipe overlooks precisely what makes Lawlor’s entry significant: the name on the page.

By 1900, Johnson prints that name as one word. His recipe specifies Scotch, but he allows the liquor to change when a customer asks for a whiskey, gin or brandy highball.[2] The historical highball family extended well beyond whisky.

From whisky and soda to Japan’s highball culture

Whisky and soda was established long before Suntory’s modern promotion. The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails traces its background through wine and soda, then Britain’s taste for brandy and soda. It connects the later turn towards whisky with disruptions to cognac supply caused by oidium and phylloxera.[5]

The Companion places whisky and soda made with blended Scotch in fashionable New York bars by the late 1880s. It also cites an 1891 Pittsburgh Daily Post description of the drink’s popularity in Fifth Avenue clubs.[5] These accounts put the combination firmly in the story before its later Japanese chapter.

Suntory dates the start of its highball promotion project to 2008. In the producer’s account, the project helped revive Japan’s whisky market and spread highball culture overseas.[10] That account describes Suntory’s contribution to the whisky market, not the drink’s origins.

Even the ice-filled glass has not been universal. Difford’s Guide reports that Scotch and soda was still commonly drunk without ice in Britain during the 1960s.[7] Nikka’s ice-filled method is one published approach in a history of varied serving habits.

The invention story and the name

No single inventor emerges from the competing accounts. Claims about who brought the drink to America, who invented or named it, and where the name came from each have their own gaps.

Verdict badge: Disputed

Patrick Gavin Duffy claimed to have first brought the highball to America, but even the date differs between accounts. Difford’s quotes his claim as 1895; the Oxford Companion gives 1894.[7][6] The original records were not opened for the fact sheet, and the earliest source for the claim has not been reliably established.

Sources: Difford’s Guide, Highballs: Story; Oxford Companion, Duffy, Patrick Gavin.

Last checked: November 2026.

Story box: Tommy Dewar and the highball

Verdict badge: Legend

Dewar’s credits Tommy Dewar with inventing the highball at a New York bar in 1892.[9] The claim that he invented or named it remains a legend. The date is Disputed: Difford’s reports that an article it dates to 1905 said Dewar named the drink 14 years earlier. That article was not opened for the fact sheet.[7]

Lawlor’s 1895 book supplies the documented record: a recipe headed “High Ball”, allowing brandy or whiskey.[1] It establishes the named recipe, rather than its inventor. Competing priority accounts remain, and no primary source in the verified record settles invention.[4][7] The earliest source for the Dewar claim has not been established from the sources checked.

The attribution and 1892 date come from Bacardi’s Dewar’s account; the printed recipe is in Lawlor’s The Mixicologist, page 39.[9][1]

Further sources: Bacardi, undated producer account; Difford’s Guide, undated historical account; Mencken, 6 November 1948.

Last checked: 7 November 2026.

Verdict badge: Legend

The railway story concerns the name rather than the recipe: a raised railway ball signal supposedly supplied “highball”. Mencken discussed the explanation and called it “pretty thin”.[4] His 1948 account is the earliest source for this explanation identified in the fact sheet.

The Oxford Companion favours a connection with the tall glass, citing an 1892 newspaper description of a high ball as “above four fingers”.[5] The name’s origin remains unestablished. Mencken captured the frustration neatly: “I pant for light, but there is no light”.[4]

Sources: Mencken, 6 November 1948; Oxford Companion, The Highball.

Last checked: November 2026.

Common mistakes

Treating Japan as the birthplace. Credit Suntory’s modern promotion separately from the drink’s origins: the nineteenth-century printed recipes came first.[10][1][3]

Presenting the railway story as fact. Label it Legend when retelling it. The Oxford Companion favours the tall-glass explanation, but the name’s origin remains unresolved.[4][5]

Making one recipe compulsory. Follow an attributed method, not an imagined universal rule. The early books differ on spirit, glass, ice and order of assembly; Nikka supplies the method used here.[1][2][3][11]

Where to go next

• Neat, With Water or on the Rocks?: compare the main serving choices without soda.
• Mizuwari and Oyuwari: Japanese Ways with Water: explore the neighbouring subject of whisky served with water.
• Whisky Glasses Explained: Glencairn, Tumbler and Copita: understand the glass shapes used for different serves.

Sources

1. EUVS Vintage Cocktail Books, digitised original. C. F. Lawlor, The Mixicologist, first edition, 1895, pages 37 and 39. https://archive.org/download/vintage-cocktail-books-euvs/1895%20The%20Mixicologist%20%28First%20Edition%29%20by%20C%20F%20Lawlor.pdf
2. EUVS Vintage Cocktail Books, digitised original. Harry Johnson, New and Improved Bartenders’ Manual, revised edition, 1900, page 251. https://archive.org/download/vintage-cocktail-books-euvs/Harry%20Johnson%E2%80%99s%20Bartenders%E2%80%99%20Manual%20%281900%29.pdf
3. EUVS Vintage Cocktail Books, digitised original. George J. Kappeler, Modern American Drinks, 1895, page 100. https://archive.org/download/vintage-cocktail-books-euvs/1895%20Modern%20American%20drinks%3B%20how%20to%20mix%20and%20serve%20all%20kinds%20of%20cups%20and%20drinks.pdf
4. The New Yorker. H. L. Mencken, The Vocabulary of the Drinking Chamber, 6 November 1948. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/11/06/the-vocabulary-of-the-drinking-chamber
5. The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, via Spirits & Distilling. The Highball, online edition, publication year not supplied in the fact sheet. https://www.spiritsanddistilling.com/dictionary/acref-9780199311132-e-339
6. The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, via Spirits & Distilling. Duffy, Patrick Gavin, online edition, publication year not supplied in the fact sheet. https://www.spiritsanddistilling.com/dictionary/acref-9780199311132-e-51
7. Difford’s Guide. Highballs: Story, online edition, publication year not supplied in the fact sheet. https://www.diffordsguide.com/g/1086/highballs/story
8. Bacardi Limited. Dewar’s Blended Scotch Whisky, undated producer account. https://www.bacardilimited.com/our-brands/dewars/
9. Suntory Holdings. Corporate Communication Book 2024, 2024, producer account. https://www.suntory.com/about-us/pdf/corporate_communications_book_2024.pdf
10. Nikka Whisky. Enjoy Whisky, undated online producer guidance. https://www.nikka.com/en/discover/enjoy/
11. Scotch Whisky Association. Scotch Whisky Tasting Toolkit, 2020. https://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/media/1714/swa-tasting-toolkit_2020.pdf

This desk-researched article uses verified fact sheet TOP-A489 and the editor’s rulings, distinguishing original recipe books, later historical accounts and producer claims.

Last checked: November 2026