The most elemental of highballs, it is simply vodka lengthened with cold orange juice over ice — clean, bright and bracingly simple. The vodka stays almost invisible, lending backbone and a faint warmth, while the juice brings the sweetness, gentle acidity and sunny colour, and an orange wheel adds a whiff of peel.
Garnish: Orange Wheel
Built · Highball · On the Rocks
build
Fill a highball glass with cubed ice.
add
Pour the vodka over the ice, then add the orange juice.
stir
Stir briefly to combine.
garnish
Garnish with an orange slice.
No single inventor is on record; the drink seems to have taken shape during World War II, when American servicemen are said to have cut neutral spirit with orange juice and, with no spoon to hand, stirred it with a screwdriver. That tale is unproven, but the name itself was already circulating around Ankara and Istanbul by 1943–44. Smirnoff's advertising through the 1950s and 1960s made it a staple of home bars, and its bare vodka-and-juice frame became the starting point for later drinks such as the Harvey Wallbanger.