The liquid adventures of Nicholas Coldicott

What highball fever?

Published on 13/04/10
by Coldicott

There’s only one bar in Tokyo that’s been unaffected by the recent highball fever: Rockfish in Ginza. Before the Kaku highball campaign was even a twinkle in Suntory’s marketing schedule, Kazunari Maguchi of Rockfish was turning out an almost uninterrupted stream of whisky & sodas, and while every other bartender in the country is reporting a huge spike in highball orders, Maguchi says it’s just business as usual at Rockfish, where highballs have always accounted for over 90% of the orders.

There is something uniquely refreshing about a Rockfish highball. Maguchi makes his without ice, so you can take a proper thrist-quenching swig of the drink. He also makes a drink that tastes of whisky, which is a nice departure from the ice-filled Kaku highballs that most places are turning out, which have just a twinkle of whisky taste.

Last Saturday Maguchi taught me his highball technique for a Whisky Magazine Japan feature. Here’s how it goes:

1. Put a glass and Suntory Whisky (Kakubin) in the freezer. Maguchi says this is the key difference between a Samboa highball, which uses refrigerated glasses, and a Rockfish highball. Make sure you’re using the rare 43% abv Kakubin rather than the usual 40% version (there are currently four types of Kakubin on the market, but Maguchi says the 43% yellow label is the one that works best in a highball. In fact, so crucial is it to his recipe that when Suntory stopped shipping it a few years ago Maguchi scoured the country for remaining bottles before persuading Suntory to supply him with it again.)

2. Pour 60 mls of ice-cold Kaku in an ice-cold glass.

3. Take a bottle of chilled Wilkinson soda (from the fridge, not the freezer, obviously) and turn it upside down over the whisky, letting it gush out. It’s pretty rare (unheard of?) for a Ginza bartender to pour soda like this, but Maguchi says its important to strip away part of the carbonation to make the most refreshing drink. You should use the whole bottle of soda.

4. Bend a slice of lemon peel around your forefinger and squeeze over the drink.

Photo by Will Robb

Rockfish
2F No. 26 Polestar Bldg, 7-2-14 Ginza, Chuo-ku. Tel: 03-5537-6900. Open Mon-Fri 3pm-11pm, Sat, Sun 3-9pm.

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