Hi-fi and highballs

Looking for a quiet night out? Listening bars have made their way into the mainstream. Known in Japan as ongaku kissa, these listening cafés have their origins in postwar Japan’s thirst for modern music. They were music-first, owned by vinyl collectors and jazz obsessives. People came not to talk but to listen to an album in its entirety.

In most contemporary versions, there’s at least a hum of conversation; some feel more like full-on nightclubs. On a trip to Miami last year, I rocked up at 9pm to Dante’s HiFi – described online as a listening bar – to find a high-energy dancefloor with lots of very hot people chatting loudly, dancing and spilling margaritas. A fun night but worlds (and decibels) away from the original kissa. Perhaps the term “listening bar” is now shorthand for: “We have a brilliant hi-fi system and really nice drinks.” It’s no surprise that the rise of this style of bar arrives in tandem with the closing of nightclubs and other music venues.

The kind I like are dimly lit, à la Wolf Hall. The sound should be well-engineered, of course; I don’t want to shout over the music at my date. It’s nice if there’s a little food, sure, but the drinks must take centre stage. These kinds of bars are a reliable option for music freaks who love a drink – two kinds of person with an unshocking amount of overlap. To those people, I am now speaking directly: next time you’re in a listening bar, order a whisky highball, the iconic drink of an old-school jazz kissa.

The highball rose to prominence as an inexpensive way to drink in postwar Japan, and its popularity has endured so much that whiskies have been developed with the express goal of adding them to soda water. A classic highball favours a brighter, citrus and orchard fruit-led whisky (a heavy or peaty version may make the drink unbalanced). The highball was further popularised by the Tory’s Bar chain, centred in Tokyo and Osaka, which emerged in the 1950s, owned by the brewing and distilling company Suntory. I asked Raffaele Di Monaco, the UK’s brand ambassador, how he teaches bartenders to serve it, and how I could replicate it at home.

Intriguingly, he had more to say about the part of the whisky highball that his company doesn’t represent: the soda water: “When carbonated water was introduced in Japan, they quickly realised that they needed a higher percentage of CO2 in the water for their highballs, so that the drink could stay fizzy for longer. Most carbonated soda in the UK has 4.5% CO2, where in Japan you can find soda water that has up to 7% CO2.”

It’s why he recommends that after you’ve topped up your whisky with water you don’t stir it, to preserve the powerful carbonation. This strong fizz is supposed to carry aroma, lifting a light whisky and maintaining sparkle for longer. These are drinks for savouring, not chugging; strong carbonation makes that tricky.I recommend using Franklin & Sons soda at home if, like me, you don’t have one of those fancy Aarke machines I’m seeing everywhere at the moment. Serve with grapefruit peel, and turn your speakers up. When was the last time you listened to an album all the way through?