This Isn't Your Father's Whisky Soda
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U.S. | NEW YORK | NY CULTURE This Isn’t Your Father’s Whisky Soda A bar in Brooklyn is serving highballs made with a Scotch-like whisky from Japan, delivered via a beer tap-like device Brooklyn’s Kinfolk 90 is the first New York City bar with a highball machine. PHOTO: ANDREW LAMBERSON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL By Charles Passy Updated Aug. 21, 2017 12:10 a.m. ET At Kinfolk 90, a bar in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, patrons can enjoy everything from an Italian riff on the Manhattan cocktail to a super-hoppy India pale ale. But many customers are opting for a whisky and soda. Then again, this isn’t your typical version of the classic drink. The booze is a Scotch-like whisky from Japan. And it is delivered via a beer tap-like device that ensures the desired 3-to-1 ratio of fizzy water and alcohol. The cocktail, simply called a highball, is a mainstay at bars in Japan, where such machines are common. And to hear some proprietors of New York establishments tell it, the drink could be the next big thing in the city. The cocktail’s appeal is rooted in its simplicity, noted Kinfolk 90 General Manager John Van Lieshout. But the machine “adds a degree of artistry to it,” he said. The bar can sell as many as 50 of the $12 cocktail on a busy night, he said. Mr. Van Lieshout also flavors his highballs with some grapefruit essence, delivered as a finishing mist via a spray bottle. Kinfolk 90 is the first bar in New York City with a highball machine, having purchased it from Beam Suntory, the booze conglomerate that is one of the dominant names in the burgeoning Japanese whisky market, he said. The bar Kinfolk 90 during a party to celebrate its new highball machine on Aug. 15. PHOTO: ANDREW LAMBERSON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Mr. Van Lieshout wouldn’t reveal what the bar paid, but a Beam Suntory official said the price tag is in the four figures. Beam Suntory hopes to have the machine, which it says is tailor-made to be used with its Toki whisky, in at least 10 New York bars by early 2018 and in dozens of establishments during the next five years. Other New York City bars are coming up with their own carefully crafted version of the highball, working with the same key ingredients of Japanese whisky and carbonated water. At Copper & Oak on the Lower East Side, owner Flavien Desoblin insists on using a sparkling water from Spain that he said adds just the right zip. The interest in the highball speaks to how New York City bars always are in search of the next “it” drink, be it cocktails made with baijiu, a potent Chinese spirit, or the frozen rosé concoction known as frosé. The popularity of the Japanese highball also speaks to the growing interest in Japanese whisky, which some connoisseurs see as a more refined version of Scotch. The category got a major boost in 2015 when Jim Murray, a well-known spirits writer, named a version of Yamazaki, a Beam Suntory whisky, as the best in the world in his annual survey. But the highball allows the spirit to be enjoyed in a different context with the addition of carbonated water. Spirits experts say it is a more refreshing way to sip whisky. Appeared in the August 21, 2017, print edition as 'This Drink Is Not Your Father’s Whisky Soda.' US PRINT Circulation / Q Score: 143,163 / 15 (Greater NY Regional Section) US ONLINE Impressions / Q Score: 43,468,863 / 19 LINK JAPAN – This article also appeared on the Japan WSJ online edition – LINK Japan Online Impressions: 2,286,468 .