Alcademics

The other day I was talking to Neyah White, brand ambassador for the Suntory family of whiskies, about highballs. He'd told me previously that highballs were a big thing in Japan that he'd like to see become popular stateside.

(Lousy picture but cool new glassware from Villeroy & Boch)

I figured I'd write about Japanese whisky for my column on FineCooking.com, and I wanted to include a recipe to accompany the blog entry. I said something like, "I'm guessing the Japanese have some riduculously complicated way to serve whisky and soda water." 

Right I was. White told me about mizuwari, the serving style in which a whisky highball is made in some places. It involves stirring the whisky 13 1/2 times and the cocktail another 3 1/2 times. 

Read the full recipe here, even though you've got the gist of it already.