Highball Glass

What is a highball glass?

The highball glass is the tall one among the essential glasses: slim, straight and built for drinks with ice, a base spirit and a fizzy top. Gin & tonic, mojito and Cuba Libre live here, and the name has its own story: where the word highball comes from has never been settled beyond doubt. The most beautiful theory tells of the American railroad, where a signal ball pulled up high meant clear tracks, and a highball, so the story goes, was the quick drink for a clear run. It stays a story, but it fits the glass, because highballs are meant to be drunk fresh and without delay.

What makes a highball glass

• Slim and tall: the narrow column keeps the carbonation fresh, the bubbles stay small and the drink stays lively
• Built in the glass: anything with carbonation gets built, never shaken, you know the rule from our build entry: shaken for texture, stirred for silk, built for bubbles and tempo
• Ice to the top: the cold stays in, the dilution stays under control, and why that is a good thing is in our dilution entry: dilution is the ingredient, over-diluting is the mistake
• Room for the bar spoon: the tall glass is exactly the reason bar spoons are so long, more on that in our bar spoon entry

Distinction: highball glass and tumbler

Short and wide or tall and slim: ice and spirit live in the tumbler, ice and fizz in the highball glass.

Remember: the tumbler is made for the ice, the highball glass for the bubbles, the coupe for the history, the martini glass for the show.

At our lounge

Most drinks we build end up in the tall glass, with fresh ice and a bar spoon within reach. Watch how long the bubbles stay awake, the shape of the glass has a share in it.