Whisky highballs: ginger ale, ginger beer, soda and cola

Most whisky highballs on our pages are 50ml of whisky and 150ml of mixer in a highball glass packed with ice. That is one part to three. At 40% ABV the drink starts at about 10% before the ice melts, with two UK units in it. Move towards one to two for a stronger, drier glass, or one to four for a lighter one; the whisky page gives the same range for ginger ale.

Soda is the exception. It has no sugar and no flavour of its own, so the amount follows the whisky and the drinker: the Whiskey Highball on our pages uses two to two and a half parts, and the Japanese highball three or four.

The Whisky and Ginger Ale on our pages is 50ml of blended Scotch and 150ml of ginger ale over a full glass of ice, stirred once, with a slice of orange. The measures follow the serve Fever-Tree publishes for its ginger ale.

Blended Scotch is the usual whisky, because its lighter grain whisky lets the ginger through without a fight, and it saves the malt you would rather drink neat. A soft Irish blend works the same way. Smoke is the one to avoid: strong peat and ginger pull in different directions.

Ginger ale comes in two styles. Wikipedia’s article on ginger ale, a secondary source, dates the pale, mild dry style to Canada in 1904, and by the same account credits the older golden style, darker, sweeter and more strongly gingered, to Belfast in the 1850s. Dry suits a highball; golden makes a sweeter, louder drink.

Split the mixer between ginger ale and soda water and the drink becomes a Presbyterian: 50ml of rye with 60ml of each and a lemon twist. It keeps the ginger and drops half the sugar. Tip it towards the ginger ale and it is a whisky and ginger again.

Ginger beer carries more ginger and more burn than ginger ale, and pours cloudy. The Whisky and Ginger Beer on our pages is Fever-Tree’s published serve: 150ml of its lighter ginger beer over 50ml of Scotch, with an orange slice.

Choose the ginger beer before the whisky. A fierce one gives the Scotch something to lean on; a mild, sweet one turns the drink into fizzy sugar with whisky in it. Brands differ widely in heat and in sugar, so taste the bottle on its own first.

Add lime and a little syrup and the drink becomes a mule. The Dublin Mule is 50ml of Irish whiskey, 20ml of lime juice and 15ml of syrup, topped with 90ml of ginger beer in a copper mug or a highball. With a dry, fiery ginger beer keep the syrup; with a sweet one, halve it.

Soda adds bubbles and a faint saline edge and no sugar, so the whisky is the only flavour in the glass. The Whiskey Highball on our pages is 50ml of Scotch with 100 to 125ml of cold soda water, stirred once, with lemon peel. Chill the glass with ice first and pour off the meltwater, or the drink goes flat and watery at once.

In Japan the whisky and soda is simply the highball, haibōru. Suntory, which says it introduced highballs to Japan in the 1950s to promote Japanese whisky, publishes its method: fill the glass with ice, pour in chilled whisky and stir, add chilled soda at three to four parts to one of whisky, give a single stir from the bottom with a bar spoon, and finish with a twist of grapefruit or lemon. Cold glass, cold whisky and cold soda spare the ice, and the single stir spares the bubbles.

At our 50ml measure that is 150 to 200ml of soda, which needs a highball at the larger end of the British 34 to 42cl range. Japanese whisky is the natural base. A light, unpeated blend from Scotland does the same job, since much Japanese whisky follows Scotch methods.

Use still water in place of soda and the drink is a Mizuwari, which means cut with water: 45ml of Japanese whisky and 90ml of cold still water over a glass packed with ice. Difford’s Guide puts the usual range at one part whisky to between two and a half and four of water, and notes that in Japan it is often drunk with food in place of wine.

Cola brings caramel, vanilla and spice, which meet the same notes in a whiskey aged in new charred oak, so bourbon and Tennessee whiskey are its usual partners. The Whisky and Cola on our pages is 50ml of whisky over ice, topped with 150ml of cold Fever-Tree Refreshingly Light Madagascan Cola and a squeezed wedge of lime. The lime’s acid stops the sugar taking over.

Jack’s Godfather Highball adds 20ml of amaretto to 30ml of Tennessee whiskey under 75ml of cola. Amaretto is flavoured with almonds or apricot kernels, so read the label for anyone with a nut allergy.

Whisky and lemonade needs fresh lemon in it too. The Lynchburg Lemonade is 40ml of Jack Daniel’s, 20ml of triple sec and 20ml of fresh lemon juice, lengthened with 90ml of sparkling lemonade. The lemonade supplies sugar and fizz, and the juice supplies the acid; without it the drink is sweet all the way down.

Whisky has no sugar to speak of, and British law forbids sweetening it. Nearly all the sugar in a highball comes from the mixer, and the bottles differ widely. Per 100ml, from the producers’ UK pages on 12 October 2026: Coca-Cola Original Taste 10.6g, Franklin & Sons 1886 Original Cola 9.9g, Fever-Tree ginger beer 7.9g, Fever-Tree ginger ale 7.2g, Fever-Tree Refreshingly Light Madagascan Cola 4.4g, and soda water none.

A highball takes 150ml, so multiply by one and a half. A whisky and full-sugar cola carries about 16g of sugar, a whisky and ginger ale about 11g, and a whisky and soda none. The Presbyterian halves the ginger ale’s share. Recipes change, so read the label in your hand.

Gluten sits in the mixer, not the whisky. UK allergen law exempts cereals that go into a distilled spirit, so whisky carries no gluten warning, but some colas use barley malt extract, and those declare it. The Madagascan cola named in the Whisky and Cola recipe is one of them.

Fill the highball to the top with ice; a few cubes in a tall glass melt fast and leave the drink warm and thin. Pour the whisky in first, then run the mixer gently down the inside of the glass. The mixer is denser and mixes the whisky as it goes in, so one slow stir from the bottom is enough, and every extra stir costs bubbles.

Open a fresh, cold bottle of mixer; a bottle opened yesterday will not lift anything. The garnish follows the mixer: orange with ginger ale and ginger beer, lemon peel with soda, lime with cola. What to mix with spiced rum works through the same ratios for rum, and bourbon or rye covers the stirred and shaken whiskey drinks.

The Whisky Mac takes its ginger from wine rather than a mixer: 50ml of blended Scotch and 25ml of green ginger wine in a rocks glass, with no ice or a single cube. It is short and warming rather than long, and ginger wine fades once open, so use a recent bottle.

The Horse’s Neck is the brandy cousin of the whisky and ginger ale: 40ml of cognac under 120ml of ginger ale, with a whole spiral of lemon peel hung in the glass.

When the weather turns, the long whisky drink goes hot. The Hot Toddy is 60ml of Scotch, 15ml each of honey syrup and lemon juice, and 120ml of water just off the boil, in a warmed mug. The whisky goes in last.

Suntory’s highball method and its 1950s date are from its Toki Highball page, and the Mizuwari range from Difford’s Guide, both read on 12 October 2026. The Whisky and Ginger Ale, Whisky and Ginger Beer and Whisky and Cola measures follow Fever-Tree’s published serves for ginger ale, ginger beer and cola. The sugar and gluten details are from the producers’ UK pages, and the ginger ale history from Wikipedia, a secondary source, all read on 12 October 2026.