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Vodka, built

Vodka Soda

Barline 2,t,HLw

The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.

Build in the glass over ice, then lift once with a barspoon.

Highball, iced, lime wheel.

Open in the menu

Taste

Two ounces of vodka and soda over ice. It drinks like cold water with weight in it and a mineral edge off the bubbles. The bottle you poured is all the flavour there is, and a lime wheel is all the seasoning.

History

Nobody invented this one. It is the highball template with vodka in the spirit slot, and it arrived with vodka's rise in American bars after the Second World War. Difford's puts the ratio with the widest appeal at two and a half parts soda to one of vodka, and notes that a couple of dashes of grapefruit bitters round off the edge. It is poured here as two ounces of vodka and soda over ice, with a lime wheel.

Same shape, other bottles

The Highball family, with the bottle that changed.

This is one drink on my home bar's menu. Tick the bottles you own and the menu lists which of all 185 drinks they pour.