Add Something Bitter to Your Cocktail
The beauty of highball lies in its simplicity: booze is paired with non-booze, which usually takes the form of a popular soft drink. Some people stack the two ingredients on top of each other for a nice ombre effect, but I like to mix mine a little and maybe garnish with a citrus wedge or a strip of zest.
If you want to get creative , you can use pure ice ( Alcademics is a good resource for tutorials) and make sure the booze is something you can drink without grimacing; if you want falute, you can add something bitter, such as Punt e Mes or another equally complex amaro. This increases the ingredient count to three, but it’s worth it.
Like most of my brilliant ideas, this one came to my mind when I was in an altered state. After drinking a fair amount of wine last night, I asked my patio roommate if she wanted anything else, like water or Diet Coke. She chose a Diet Coke and asked for “some whiskey,” so I added an ounce of bottled bourbon along with a tablespoon of Punt en Mes (my current obsession). The result was very, very good. The bitterness of Punt e Mes softened the sweetness of the diet soda and softened the aspartame, while other botanicals intensified the flavor of the cola. This addition has raised the level of the drink from a simple “something and something” to a real cocktail with a capital letter. It seemed intentional and the taste finished.
Punt e Mes is a good choice for any brown liqueur, but flavor matching is half the fun. Try Avèze or Suze with citrus soda highballs or Bitter Bianco Luxardo with ginger ale. Accordingly, I recommend 1 1/2 ounces of base alcohol with a tablespoon of bitter amaro or vermouth and 4 ounces of baking soda for a pleasant sip – although you can certainly increase the amount of base alcohol if you feel like it.