What's the right whisky-to-soda ratio?

See the ingredients above for this build. If it tastes weak, "Rescue this drink" above notes it's the ratio rather than the total volume that needs changing.

Which whisky works best?

See the substitution guidance above — a blended Scotch is the standard here, and Irish whiskey gives a smoother, lighter result. Heavily peated bottles tend to dominate a long drink.

A real variation listed above — the Japanese style, built with still mineral water at a lower spirit-to-water ratio for a gentler sipping drink.

A tall Whisky Highball in a highball glass with a lemon twist and large ice cubes

Photo by George Shervashidze on Pexels

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Whisky Highball

Whisky and soda water over ice — the simplest way to make good whisky last longer.

Difficulty: easy
Prep time: 3 min
Strength: 7.5% ABV
Glassware: Highball glass
Base: whisky
Serves: 1

Ingredients

Blended Scotch or other whisky
45ml
Soda water
Well chilled, to top
120ml

Garnish: Lemon twist (optional)

Scale for a party

Method

Fill a highball glass completely with large ice cubes.
Pour in the whisky.
Stir the whisky and ice a few times to pre-chill before adding soda, so it doesn't over-dilute.
Top slowly with cold soda water, pouring down the side of the glass rather than onto the ice.
Stir once, lifting from the bottom, and serve immediately.
Express a lemon twist over the top if using, and drop it in.

Equipment

Don't have everything? Here's what works instead.

Jigger
Household swap: A tablespoon measure (1 tbsp ≈ 15ml).
Bar spoon
Household swap: A long-handled kitchen spoon or chopstick.

Missing an ingredient?

Each swap below says what it changes and how to correct for it, so you can decide whether you are making this drink or a neighbouring one.

Instead of Blended Scotch
Best substitute: Irish Whiskey
This is the base in this drink.
Flavour impact: Gives a smoother, lighter highball with less smoke and a touch more sweetness.
What changes
Expect more sweetness. Still a good drink, and a slightly different one.
Sweetness ↑
The drink will land sweeter, which also makes it read as less sharp and slightly heavier even though nothing else changed.
Character
Both are smooth, and you lose honeyed, light smoke and balanced, and you gain light, sweet cereal and gentle. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.
To correct for it
- Cut the syrup or sugar back — start by halving it and taste before adding any back.
High confidenceShifts the drink
Instead of Soda Water
Best substitute: Ginger Ale
This is the lengthener in this drink.
Flavour impact: Adds mild spice and sweetness, turning it into a Whisky and Ginger.
What changes
Ginger Ale moves the drink a long way — more sweetness, more acidity and more intensity. This is worth making deliberately rather than as a stand-in.
Sweetness ↑
The drink will land sweeter, which also makes it read as less sharp and slightly heavier even though nothing else changed.
Acidity ↑
More acidity makes the drink taste fresher and drier, and can push a balanced sour over into sharp.
Intensity ↑
A more intensely flavoured ingredient will start to dominate the components around it.
Character
Both are fizzy and light, and you lose neutral and clean, and you gain mildly spicy and sweet. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.
To correct for it
- Cut the syrup or sugar back — start by halving it and taste before adding any back.
- Use slightly less of it, or add a touch more sweetener to hold the balance.
- Scale it back by a third and let the other ingredients hold their share.
High confidenceMakes a different drinkBecomes a variation

Make it better

Use soda water straight from the fridge — warm soda goes flat fast and dilutes the drink instead of lengthening it.
Pack the glass completely with ice before adding any liquid; too little ice means the drink warms and flattens within minutes.
Stir only once, gently, after topping with soda — over-stirring knocks out the carbonation you just added.
Express the citrus peel by pinching it, skin-side down, over the drink before dropping it in — this releases aromatic oils across the surface.

Rescue this drink

Goes flat quickly: You likely used soda that had already been open a while, or stirred too vigorously — use a fresh bottle and stir just once.
Tastes watery: Use fewer, larger ice cubes rather than a handful of small ones, which melt and dilute much faster.
Too weak overall: Increase the whisky to 50–60ml and keep the soda topped at the same level — the ratio, not the total volume, is what matters.
Smells more of alcohol than whisky character: Pour the soda gently down the side rather than splashing it in; a hard pour knocks aromatic compounds out of the glass.
You cannot smell itgeneral guidance: Most of a drink's aroma is on top of it, not in it. Squeeze the peel skin-side-down over the surface before dropping it in — the oil should visibly spray. A twist placed in the glass without being expressed contributes almost nothing. Aroma also fades fastest of anything in a drink, so garnish at the moment of serving rather than in advance.
Served too warmgeneral guidance: Chill the glass, ice and every ingredient ahead of time — a warm pour is the fastest way to lose a cold drink's balance. For one serving, there's no real fix beyond rebuilding it properly chilled; for a batch, keep everything refrigerated until the moment of serving and add ice last.

Make ahead & storage

Batch the base, finish at serving

Batch the base days ahead and add soda water when you pour.

Soda water:: Carbonated — it goes flat in a bottle, and there is no way to put the fizz back.

What it tastes like

The taste, and what drives it

bone dry, soft, very light, sparkling — a long and lengthened drink served long, over ice.

Bone dry

Dry → Sweet

There is no added sweetness here at all — nothing rounds off the edges.

Faintly bitter

Gentle → Bitter

A bitter edge you would only notice if you looked for it.

What drives it: Blended Scotch or other whisky — provides the bitterness.

Very light

Light → Rich

Almost weightless in the mouth — closer to a long soft drink than to a sipper.

No single ingredient accounts for this — it comes from the combination rather than from one bottle.

Very sparkling

Still → Sparkling

Carbonated, which lifts the aromatics and makes the drink taste drier than its sugar content alone would suggest.

What drives it: Soda water — carries the carbonation.

Bold

Delicate → Bold

Bold. This drink is the loudest thing on the table.

What drives it: Blended Scotch or other whisky — is the most concentrated thing in the glass.

What you smell first

Citrus peelLeadsBefore the first sip
From Lemon twist (optional)
Oak
From Blended Scotch or other whisky
Smoke
From Blended Scotch or other whisky

Aromas marked as sitting above the drink reach you before the first sip — skipping that garnish changes the drink more than its size suggests.

How it was worked out

Each reading comes from the recipe's own recorded taste scores combined with what each ingredient contributes, weighted by how much of it is in the glass. Almost everything in this drink has detailed ingredient data behind it.

How balance actually works →

If it isn't right

What goes wrong with this drink, and why

Only the faults this particular recipe is actually prone to — each with the likely cause, the adjustment, and what the adjustment costs you.

The fizz is the last thing in, and the first thing lost

Worth knowing

Carbonation escapes to warmth, agitation and anything it can cling to — pulp, sugar crystals, a dry glass wall.

How to handle it: Chill the mixer hard, pour it against the inside of the glass, add it last, and stir once at most.

It tastes weak
Likely cause
Usually dilution rather than measurement: building in the glass adds water as it chills, and wet or small ice adds far more of it than cold, large ice does.
What to change
Use larger, colder ice and work faster. Adding more spirit fixes the symptom and unbalances everything else.
What that does
The drink gains definition without gaining sugar. It will also read as slightly sharper, which is what 'more presence' usually means in practice.
It's gone flat
Likely cause
Soda water loses gas to warmth, to agitation and to anything it can nucleate against — pulp, sugar crystals, a dry glass.
What to change
Chill the mixer properly, add it last, pour it against the inside wall of the glass, and stir once at most.
What that does
The bubbles last, which also makes the drink taste drier — carbonation contributes a real acidity of its own on top of the lift.
It doesn't smell of anything
Likely cause
The aroma you are missing is probably citrus peel, which sits above the drink rather than in it — skipping or under-expressing the garnish removes it entirely.
What to change
Express the peel over the surface with the skin facing the drink, then drop it in. Herbs go in the glass, not on the side.
What that does
Aroma arrives before flavour does, so the whole drink reads as more intense without a single measure changing. The oil does land in the drink, though — an over-expressed peel adds a faint bitterness to the first mouthful.
It tastes one-dimensional
Likely cause
With 2 components there is nowhere for complexity to hide — a long and lengthened drink is exposed by design, so a dull one is usually a dull ingredient rather than a missing step.
What to change
Change the quality of what is there before adding anything new: fresh citrus rather than bottled, a better base bottle, a dash of bitters. Bitters add layers at a scale nothing else matches.
What that does
More going on at the same strength and sweetness. Adding a whole extra ingredient instead usually produces a muddier drink rather than a deeper one.

Taste profile

Sweetness: 0/5
Sourness: 0/5
Bitterness: 1/5
Strength: 3/5
Fruitiness: 0/5
Freshness: 3/5
Creaminess: 0/5
Smokiness: 2/5

Nutrition & alcohol

Estimate only

Calories: 100 kcal
Sugar: 0 g
Carbohydrates: 0 g
Alcohol units (UK): 1.8
US standard drinks: 1.01
ABV: 7.5%
Serving size: 240 ml

Show calculation assumptions

Source: Calculated from standard measures

Calorie breakdown: ~99 kcal from alcohol, ~1 kcal from sugar and mixers.

Likely range: 75–125 kcal, reflecting the confidence level above — not a lab-measured figure.

Assumes 45ml blended Scotch at 40% ABV topped with 120ml soda water, served over a full glass of ice.

These figures are estimates, not laboratory measurements — individual tolerance to alcohol varies. See our responsible drinking guidance.

Variations

Whisky and Ginger
Replace the soda water with ginger ale for a sweeter, spicier highball.
Mizuwari
The Japanese style: a lower spirit-to-water ratio (roughly 1:2.5) built with still mineral water instead of soda, for an even gentler sipping drink.

What kind of drink this is

The structure behind the recipe

A built build: a long and lengthened whisky-based drink, served long, over ice — sparkling in the mouth.

Long and lengthened

A short measure stretched with a mixer or juice — the drink's length, not its concentration, is the point of it.

Base
Blended Scotch or other whisky
Lengthener
Soda water

Drinks built this way are collected as the Highball family.

Technique

built

Components are poured into the serving glass over ice and stirred once, or not at all. Dilution happens while you drink rather than before.

The drink changes as you go: strongest at the first sip, longest and most diluted at the last. That drift is a feature of a long drink and a fault in a short one.

What it ruins: Nothing, but it cannot properly combine anything viscous — a syrup poured last will sit at the bottom.

Everything about building in the glass →How the technique works →

Dilution

In the glass, as you drink

Water from ice typically makes up around 15% of the finished drink for a built build (commonly 10–20%). Dilution is an ingredient here, not a side effect.

Why dilution is an ingredient →

Served

Long, over ice

Highball glass · 240ml

Served on ice, so it keeps chilling in the glass. A larger, colder, slower drink than the same spirits served straight up.

Texture and aroma

SparklingLemon twist (optional)

Carbonation lifts aromatics and adds a slight acidity of its own, which is why a long drink can taste drier than its sugar content suggests.

Aroma arrives before flavour does. A citrus twist is expressed over the surface so its oils sit on top of the drink — skipping it changes the drink more than its size suggests.

Where to go from here

Each of these is here because of something specific about this drink, not as a standard set of links.

Where it comes from

Origin and family

A simple built drink with roots across whisky-drinking cultures; refined into a precise ritual in Japanese highball bars from the early 20th century onward.

Family

Highball

1 part spirit · 2–4 parts mixer — built in the glass over a full load of ice.

The wider history

Every claim on these pages is labelled by how well the evidence supports it — documented, disputed, or folklore.

Japanese bar culture, and the story told about it

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French 75
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Questions people ask

What's the right whisky-to-soda ratio?: See the ingredients above for this build. If it tastes weak, "Rescue this drink" above notes it's the ratio rather than the total volume that needs changing.
Which whisky works best?: See the substitution guidance above — a blended Scotch is the standard here, and Irish whiskey gives a smoother, lighter result. Heavily peated bottles tend to dominate a long drink.
What's a Mizuwari?: A real variation listed above — the Japanese style, built with still mineral water at a lower spirit-to-water ratio for a gentler sipping drink.

Use up your ingredients

Bought a bottle just for this? Here's what else it's good for.

Scale this for a party

Work out bottles, mixers, ice and total alcohol units for any number of guests.

Recipe confidence

About as simple and well-established a format as exists — two ingredients with broadly agreed proportions.

High confidence