A two-ingredient highball that lets the agave do the talking, with clean blanco tequila stretched long over ice by soda water and brightened by a squeeze of lime. Think of a Gin & Tonic with agave where the gin was and plain bubbles in place of tonic's bittersweet edge — bone-dry, bracing and mineral, the low-fuss counterpoint to the sweeter Margarita and Paloma.
Garnish: Lime Wedge
Built · Highball · On the Rocks
build
Fill a highball glass with cubed ice.
add
Pour the tequila blanco over the ice.
top
Top with chilled soda water.
stir
Give one gentle stir to combine without knocking out the carbonation.
garnish
Squeeze and drop in a lime wedge.
No one invented the Tequila & Soda; it is simply what happens when tequila meets the basic highball habit of lengthening a spirit with sparkling water over ice. That same habit produced the Scotch and soda, the gin and tonic and the rum and Coke through convergence rather than authorship, and this drink joins them without a founding bar or a named creator. It has never been formally codified either: the IBA's official list carries the Paloma and the Tequila Sunrise as its tequila highballs, but no plain tequila with soda.