Highball Cocktails
Explore 35 Highball cocktail recipes.
Highballs are the most honest format in cocktail making — a measure of spirit, a long pour of a mixer, ice up to the top, served in a tall glass with no extra ceremony. The Whisky and Coke is the everyday anchor of the family: 30 to 50ml of bourbon or Scotch, cola to fill, ice all the way through, sometimes a slice of lemon if you want one. The Long Island Iced Tea takes the same long format and stacks the spirit side instead of leaning on a single base — same glass, same ice, same lemon-and-cola finish, four times the proof.
Across this list you'll find Gin and Tonics, Vodka Sodas, Moscow Mules, Cuba Libres and Dark and Stormies — all of them running the same template: spirit, ice, long mixer, garnish. What ties them together is that the mixer is doing as much flavour work as the spirit. A Gin and Tonic with a flat tonic reads completely differently from one with a properly carbonated one.
The same is true of ginger beer for the Mule, cola for the highball, soda for the Vodka Soda. Most are built directly in the glass rather than shaken, most reward better mixer over the budget version, most need plenty of ice (which keeps the mixer cold rather than just diluting the drink), and most are forgiving of small ratio variation. They're the right answer for a drink you don't need to think about.
Top Highball cocktails
Sherry Cobbler
Maraschino cherry liqueur, Sherry (dry), Sherry (sweet), Sugar / simple syrup, Pineapple juice, Orange juice
Tequila Soda
Tequila blanco, Soda water
Long Distance Reviver
Dry gin, Coffee liqueur, Double Dutch Cranberry & Ginger Tonic, Orange bitters
Jimmie Roosevelt
Cognac, Green Chartreuse, Champagne / prosecco, Aromatic bitters, Sugar / simple syrup
Salmoncito
Gin, Campari, Tonic water, Grapefruit juice
Whisky and coke
Whiskey, Cola
Smoked Chamomile Paloma
Hornitos Plata, Mezcal, Grapefruit soda, Grapefruit juice, Lemon juice, Honey syrup
Smoky Islay Old Fashioned
Whiskey, Mezcal, Aromatic bitters, Aromatic bitters, Sugar