January Outturn 2025 Feature Article
For those who know me, you should know that I love a highball. Every Christmas, I start the day with an SMWS highball, usually an unpeated bottling from a bourbon cask, rife with stone fruit and biscuity notes. This is my tradition. For Christmas 2024, I settled on Cask 35.329 No More Counting Sheep, which provided a creamy, citrusy refreshment throughout Christmas Day.
While this is my Christmas tradition, there are so many ways to enjoy the humble highball. But what exactly is this incredible drink?
Though popularized in Japan, the highball actually has its origins in England sometime in the early to mid-19th century, initially mixing brandy and soda. Later, whisky and gin became the spirits of choice, which also led to the classic G&T. The drink made its way across to the Americas and has been growing in popularity as new flavoured sodas have been developed. After Japan was opened to trade by the American Navy, introducing the country to whisky and American drinking culture, the highball became a cultural phenomenon, eventually becoming synonymous with Japanese bar culture.
In Japan, the highball was perfected. Here, the cocktail is treated as more than the sum of its parts. The spirit is carefully poured into a very chilled glass, followed by large ice cubes to minimize dilution while maintaining temperature. The spirit and ice are stirred to bring the spirit to the right temperature, and then a long pour of soda is added—just enough to not obscure the flavour of the spirit. The mixture is then stirred again to carefully integrate the components.
For our January outturn, and having just come off my Christmas highball, I’ve chosen three of our casks to pair with Fever Tree’s Lime and Yuzu Soda for that bright, citrusy adventure I enjoyed myself. The first is another cask from Distillery 35: Cask 35.332 Peppermint Peppernuts, with notes of lemon drizzle sponge cake and pink peppercorn. This would be perfectly garnished with a sprig of fresh mint! The second, Cask 60.37 Sweetly Modern, has delicate honey, rice pudding, and butterscotch notes. The Fever Tree lime and yuzu soda complements the spirit, evolving it into a citrus and honey-flavoured boiled sweet. This could be garnished with fresh basil and a slice of lime. And finally, Cask 128.20 Delightfully Bonkers, a super juicy, fruity explosion with tons of tropical and stone fruits. Garnish this highball with a big slice of fresh yellow peach — delightful!
For those who would like to explore these highballs, if you purchase three bottles (or more) in the same order during January, we’ll send out a 500ml bottle of Fever Tree Lime and Yuzu Soda with your order to help you experiment at home.
If you’d like to delve deeper into highballs, join myself, Alex Moores, Adam Ioannidis, and Trish Brew from Fever Tree for our January Virtual Tasting, where we can explore the beautiful highball further.
On that note, let’s make this January Highball January.
This article is featured in January 2025 Outturn — bottles will be available to purchase on Friday the 3rd of January at midday AEDT exclusively to members of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Not a member? Click here to learn more about the world’s most colourful whisky club.
