A tall, bright highball that pairs smoky-malty blended Scotch with the juice of half a lime and a long pour of crisp ginger ale over ice, the ginger's soft bite lifting the malt rather than burying it. Light, dry and endlessly refreshing, it drinks like a whisky buck built for a hot afternoon, with the lime keeping every sip clean and the smoke lingering just underneath.
Garnish: Lime Wedge
Built · Highball · On the Rocks
build
Fill a highball glass with ice cubes.
add
Add the Scotch whisky and lime juice.
top
Top with chilled ginger ale.
stir
Stir briefly and gently to combine.
garnish
Garnish with a lime wedge.
Its name is said to honour the American singer Mamie Taylor, and the most repeated story has it first mixed in 1899 at Ontario Beach, a lakeside resort near Rochester, New York — though no bartender behind it has ever been documented. Within a few years it had caught on widely, and newspapers of the early 1900s reported it drawing drinkers away from the gin rickey before Prohibition. Bar books of the 1930s kept it on record as whisky, half a lime and ginger ale in a tall glass over ice, some allowing rye in place of Scotch and one adding a dash of port, and today it is counted among the bucks, the family of spirit, citrus and ginger highballs.