A Distilled Guide to Highball Serves Highball Serve Highball Serve
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VOLUME 09 JANUARY - MARCH IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TOM SANDHAM & BEN MCFARLAND THINKING DRINKERS A DISTILLED GUIDE TO HIGHBALL SERVES HIGHBALL SERVE HIGHBALL SERVE WELCOME TO THE FIRST DISTILLED EDITION OF 2020... ... is all about the Highball serve, a serve that is proving popular among bartenders due to their accessibility and easy-drinking style and the opportunity to showcase unusual flavours with 2 WELCOME more familiar spirits. In this edition you will find information on various spirits, as well as how the Highball can be used as 4 THE THINKING DRINKERS vehicle for everything from Tequila, to Gin, Rum and Whiskey. 6 HIGHBALL HISTORY First up in this edition is Laphroaig 10 YO, a full-bodied, smoke- filled legend, with a hint of sweet to go with salt and seaweed. “ah-BAY-lya” and meaning “bee” in Portuguese) 8 BLACK HIGH When it comes to flavour, this stands out as one of Scotland’s is a small-batch, premium copper-still cachaça most memorable whisky experiences. made from sugar cane grown by a collective of 16 LAPHROIAG smallholding farmers amid the sandy Highland 18 HIGHBALL PRE-BATCH Moving across the pond from Scotland, into the world of soils of Bahia, Northern Brazil. American whiskey, Jack Daniel’s has done more to promote a 22 JOHNNIE WALKER simple highball serve than any other. But if you want to branch When you’re eyeing up the tequila on the back off from the standard “Jack & Coke” then the Jack Daniel’s bar, it’s worth noting the highball is great for 24 JACK RYE HIGHBALLS Tennessee Rye, a Rye whiskey that has been embraced by newcomers to the agave spirit category. The some of the best bar professionals in highball serves. serve provides an open door to the full spectrum 26 AMERICAN WHISKEY of flavours agave spirits have on offer. There’s We then come on to Maker’s Mark, a whiskey that is lauded plenty of scope with simple mixers in a highball CHECK US OUT 28 HAYMAN’S SMALL GIN for its sweet profile with a high corn percentage, this allows serve using Tequilas like Patrón Silver. FOR FULL EXTENDED bartenders to build on its sweetness with a little sugar syrup 32 SLINGSBY CONTENT PLEASE VISIT in a drink, but also counter it with something fresh. As a Let’s move on, now, to Lillet – an oak-aged DISTILLEDUK.COM result, it works nicely in a slightly adapted julep highball serve, aromatised aperitif made from a blend of 34 CUT SMOKE lengthened with some soda water: a perfect serve if the bar Bordeaux wines (85%), natural citrus and quinine doesn’t have julep cups. liqueurs (15%), and King’s Ginger, a hugely 38 DARK ‘N STORMY adaptable, iconic liqueur with a great story to tell. CALL US We can’t talk about Highballs and not mention Gin, and as a CALL 0845 072 7092 40 LATIN AMERICAN proud champion of gin history, Hayman’s is renowned for its We now live in an era where non-alcoholic mixed TO PLACE AN ORDER 46 AGAVE ACTION innovative approach to distilling, and recently launched the drinks are earning parity with alcoholic mixes WITH YOUR SALES exceptional Hayman’s Small Gin. Described as a “game- on the menu. The non-alcoholic spirit Seedlip MANAGER 50 LIQUEURS changing gin” the aim of this spirit is to let bartenders mix a real has been a pioneer in this movement, and has gin and tonic with just 0.2 units of alcohol per serve. become an essential addition to the back bar. 54 SEEDLIP FOLLOW US Next up is Slingsby Gin, a truly great highball gin that even when Ending where we began with Whisky, and 56 MIXERS lengthened with lemonade or tonic, still lets the aromas of specifically Johnnie Walker, a brand that will DISTILLEDUK black pepper, citrus and pine prevail, leaving that classic, clean celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2020. In DISTILLEDUK 62 PRODUCT RANGE London Dry Gin character to come through on the palate. preparation for the big year ahead, Johnnie Walker launched a global campaign to promote Snapping at the heels of gin when it comes to sales figures is the highball, and taking the view that there are no Rum, and Spiced Rum in particular is going to be massive this strict rules or recipes to follow, the team created a year. The Cut Rum range we feature next appeals to younger Johnnie Walker Highball concept that was simple Distilled is a trading name of Carlsberg All products are supplied subject to our standard terms and conditions of sale; copies are available drinkers and Highballs are a great way to showcase these rums. to recreate. UK Limited. at www.carlsberguk.co.uk/termsandconditions. By law, we cannot sell or supply alcohol to anyone Customer Contact Centre: 08456 013 432 who isn’t over 18. By placing an order you confirm that you are 18 or over and have accepted Carlsberg UK Limited. Registered office: and agreed to be bound by all applicable terms and conditions. Whilst any recommendations or While the industry has been espousing the wonders of tequila Hopefully you will find the information within Jacobsen House, 140 Bridge Street, representations in this guide or otherwise made by Distilled are given in good faith, you should not and mezcal for more than a decade, a barrier remains between this edition insightful and inspiring, enabling you Northampton, NN1 1PZ rely on them in place of your own independent professional advice. All images are for illustration knowledgeable bartenders and drinkers unsure of what to drink to offer a great range of this brilliant and Company number: 00078439 only, product packaging may differ. Details correct at time of going to print. We reserve the right CARLSBERG UK IS A MEMBER OF THE to change details without notice. Errors and omissions excepted. These terms and conditions and and how to drink it. Abelha Organic Cachaça (pronounced versatile serve! PORTMAN GROUP – PROMOTING any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them shall be governed by English Law and RESPONSIBLE DRINKING subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. 4 HIGHBALL SERVE HIGHBALL SERVE 5 as many readers will be aware, WELCOME TO THE is a serve that is both steeped in history and enjoying an FIRST EDITION understandable revival. The highball serve is currently very OF DISTILLED much on-trend in the on-trade. gin, if you really pare it right What was once a moribund and More than just a single serve, the back, you only need three monochrome mixer market highball is a category that is open ingredients for a perfect drink: gin, has become a kaleidoscope of IN 2020 to interpretation and innovation. In ice and a glass; plus a couple of complex flavours and aromas – its simplest form, a highball great friends to sip it with.” and one that we explore through a consists of a spirit, a balanced rather silly sausage analogy. Hello everybody, welcome to the So, throughout 2020, a century on mixer and a fresh, uplifting garnish, While the gin-aissance has first edition of Distilled in 2020. It from all that silliness, Distilled will while at its most complex the certainly acted as a catalyst for But we’ve paid particular attention was a hundred years ago that the be raising a glass to a far more highball can be an intricate balance these halcyon highball days, one to the world of whisky – the spiritual United States of America discerning approach to drinking. In of all the “taste elements” (sweet, which we explore on pages ?-?, home of the highball. introduced Prohibition – the fact, we will be raising quite a few sour, salt and bitter) that the strength of this serve is that it beginning of a 13-year period of glasses over the next 12 months, as showcases the cores spirit or works so wonderfully well across History has it that the highball ill-enforced abstention. – in addition to the main magazine liqueur in style. almost all spirit and started life as a tall Scotch whisky – each of the quarterly editions will liqueur categories. drink, and there are several During Prohibition, people came be dedicated to a particular serve. The one constant is that it is long, (disputed) theories regarding up with ingenious ways to keep cool, and crisp. Award-winning Throughout this issue, we its origin. drinking. Some pretended to be Over the year, with the help of the mixologist and drinks author Max showcase how incredibly versatile doctors or priests so they could bartending community and leading Venning is a big fan: “Highballs are the highball is as a vehicle for One suggestion is that the name get hold of medicinal alcohol or brands across all categories, really accessible and easy to drink everything from agave spirits and comes from a nineteenth century communion wine, while others hid we will be exploring the world of and they are a great way to iconic liqueurs to rum, pisco and railroad term. In his 2003 book illicit booze in everything from fake cocktails and bars through the add unusual flavours alongside even non-alcoholic spirits. The Joy of Mixology, the late, great heels in their shoes and canes to prism of a goblet, Martini and rocks more familiar notes.” cocktail expert Gaz Regan wrote garden hoses and hollowed-out glass respectively. On pages ??-??, we also delve that when a train was set to eggs. As American moonshine- As the chaps behind Sipsmith Gin deeper into the increasingly makers didn’t have time to age their But we begin with this edition recently wrote in their latest book, dynamic world of tonics, mixers spirits, they even faked the looking at highballs – and we’re not 100 Gin Cocktails with only 3 and soft drinks, especially those effect by adding dead rats and talking about inspecting a giraffe’s Ingredients, “Stunning doesn’t have specifically designed to bring out rotten meat.