We are barrelling along through the season for fresh berries in Appalachia. The entire region is a great spot for strawberries, raspberries (especially the treasured black raspberry), and my favorite, blackberries, which grow wild everywhere here — just watch out for bears, bees, and snakes. There’s no fruit I prefer more than fresh berries. My youth was spent trying to beat our flock of chickens to the wild ones as they became ripe. Somehow they knew the exact moment that the berries on the farm should be eaten.

The season is making me think about Scottish Sandie, which was one of my favorite cocktails of the year so far. I also love Scotch whisky (no “e” for the Scots), but sometimes you can lull yourself into believing that a great dram is for fall and winter as if it is only meant for the rocker beside the fireplace after a bad day, dimly lit taverns, or sitting beside a creek before it’s time to get in the tent. Enter the whisky highball.

Highballs lengthen drinks, making them lighter in terms of ABV, and accommodating fresher, fruitier flavor profiles that you wouldn’t normally associate with Scotch. They are simple drinks that make for a perfect summer evening on the porch swing with friends. The only requirement is matching the Scotch to the type of highball you want to create. Winston Churchill was famous for slurping on Scotch and soda all day — a bare-bones highball consisting of the Scotch and seltzer as the only addition. His Scotch of choice was Johnny Walker Red.

On that point, as on many others, Churchill was on the right track. Blended Scotch works best. You wouldn’t want to necessarily use your single malt for this, though if you did, the sherried versions will work a lot better than the Islay versions full of smoke. This is a great follow-up to our White Lion and will help you use your leftover raspberry syrup — you’ll find the recipe for raspberry syrup in that post. And like Ti’ Punch, this will make a great lawnmower cocktail.

Thoroughly chill your glass. This cocktail is an easy build. Retrieve your glass and add all the ingredients sans garnish to the highball. Give it a quick stir to blend it. Then, add a long spear of ice, or fill with shard ice as I’ve done above. Garnish with the berries and mint. Enjoy!

If you are remaining true to form with this particular drink, there aren’t a ton of options for customizing it. If you change up your syrup, I think red fruits tend to be better with Scotch Whisky than dark fruits. So if you move away from raspberry, strawberries or cherries would be an excellent way to go here. After all, the Blood and Sand cocktail calls for Cherry Heering, so cherry is a natural mate for Scotch. If you switch the fruit syrup for something else, obviously, change up your garnish to fit the bill.

If you are not a Scotch drinker, and don’t like blended Scotch, you probably don’t like any Scotch. They’re built to be smooth, easy drinkers. A smoky Scotch won’t be great here, but a sherried Highland or Speyside malt might work if you don’t mind using a single malt in a highball. The other obvious choice here is Bourbon; it sings summer. Any Bourbon you like will likely be great in the drink - I tend to like vanilla bombs like Woodford, but a smooth “wheater” or a spicy high-rye will do as well. As for straight rye whiskey, that might be a bit too spicy for the summery nature of the drink (at least for what I’d envisioned for this one). Finally, Irish Whiskey, with its smooth, silky toffee, caramel, and vanilla notes, would also work well. In general, for any highball, don’t pull your most expensive bottle.

Finally, there’s a dab more Angostura bitters in this than usual. The spice notes create punch-character that works well in a drink that, with a little citrus, would be a Scotch punch. It keeps the drink firmly rooted in summer. As for the club soda, use as much or as little as you like for the task at hand. 

Tell me what you think in the comments if you try it with another spirit. I’ll see you here at the Appalachian Speakeasy for more imbibing next week.

This blog is, as ever, an opinionated take on drinks.