Highball Glass

The Shape Is the Function

A highball is tall and narrow, and both dimensions are doing work.

Narrow means a small surface at the top, which is where carbonation escapes. Tall means room for enough ice to keep the drink cold for its whole life without the ice taking the space the mixer needs.

So a gin and tonic keeps its fizz longer in a highball than in a wide tumbler of the same size, and its ice lasts longer too.

The Drink Decides the Glass

A highball is two ingredients: a spirit and one carbonated mixer, over ice. A slice or a squeeze of lime does not change that. Rum and cola, gin and tonic and whisky and soda are all highballs.

A collins is built differently: spirit, citrus juice and sugar first, soda on top. The Tom Collins, with gin, lemon, sugar syrup and soda, set the pattern.

So the two glasses answer two builds. In a highball, mixer makes up most of the drink. A collins carries soda as only a third to a half of the glass, over a sharper, sweeter base, and the slimmer collins glass holds on to what fizz there is. Bars pour either drink into either glass, and the IBA specifies a highball for its John Collins.

A British Highball Needs About 38 to 42cl

Our shop’s hiballs are 38 and 42cl, and the trade usually spells it hiball; Urban Bar’s own highballs run from 30 to 37cl. American guides give smaller figures: about 6 to 10oz, or 18 to 30cl, and they call anything bigger a collins glass.

Work it out from the drink. The usual British serve is 50ml of spirit and 150ml of mixer, which is 200ml of liquid. A highball should be filled to the top with ice, and the cubes take up a large share of the glass. Under about 34cl, that drink and a full load of ice will not fit.

The Expedition Spiced Rum serve that took Silver at the IWSC 2026 follows the highball pattern: 50ml of rum and 150ml of Franklin and Sons cola, judged without ice. Built over ice at home, the same 200ml wants a glass at the larger end of the range.

Ice, and Filling It Properly

Fill the glass with ice. Not half, not two-thirds. To the top.

This is a common mistake in home highballs and it is counterintuitive. Less ice feels like less dilution, and it produces the opposite: a small amount of ice in a tall glass warms quickly, melts fast, and gives you a drink that is warm and watery at once. Packed to the rim, the ice keeps the whole drink cold and each cube lasts longer.

Cold mixer matters just as much. Ice cannot both cool a room-temperature tonic and keep the drink cold; asked to do both, it does neither well.

Pouring for Carbonation

Down the inside wall, gently, and stir once.

Poured straight into the middle, a mixer crashes through the drink and drives off much of its carbonation. Angled against the side, it slides in and keeps most of it.

Then one slow turn with a bar spoon, from the bottom. Each extra stir drives off more gas. If the drink still looks layered, the rising bubbles and the ice finish the mixing as it sits.

Common Questions