News
No.10976 January 11, 2011
To build on the growing highball market, Suntory Liquors has developed a new Highball Bar business model specializing in highball-style cocktails. The first of these bars, the Highball Bar Shimbashi 1923, will open on January 28, 2011 in Tokyo's Shimbashi neighborhood.
Suntory has been actively marketing whisky highball cocktails, which are made by mixing whisky with soda, and over the past several years the number of customers enjoying whisky has been climbing, thanks to the popularity of the Kaku Highball and Torys Highball. Suntory's whisky sales in 2010 grew a massive 17% over the previous year.
Aiming to build on the popularity of the highball market, Suntory has developed a new business model known as the "Highball Bar," built around the concept of creating specialty bars that offer premium quality highball cocktails. This bar features exclusive new dispensers that allow highballs to be served well chilled with high-pressure carbonation, and will offer premium highballs using a wide variety of whiskies including Kakubin, Yamazaki 10 Years Old, Hakushu 10 Years Old, and The Macallan Fine Oak 12 Years Old. These features will allow customers to taste and enjoy a wide range of highball flavors. The bar will also serve snacks that go well with highballs, as well as a full menu that includes such offerings as pizza and spaghetti. Decorated to reflect a "nostalgic modern" theme, the interior is designed to evoke a sense of nostalgia and the bar offers a "My Mug" system where regular customers can keep their own copper mugs on the premises.
Suntory plans to open Highball Bars in locations all over Japan, further boosting the growth of the highball market.
Suntory has developed a dedicated dispenser especially for use at its Highball Bars. This dispenser allows the bartender to serve highball after highball which is well chilled using high-pressure carbonation. The 5-tap highball tower designed exclusively for Suntory's Highball Bar will also help bartenders to serve each highball cocktail quickly. The bar will serve premium highballs with the highest attention paid to every detail, even down to the use of specially made icicle-shaped ice cubes.
The Highball Bar will offer a "My Mug" system. Copper mugs exclusively used by the Highball Bar will be kept on the premises to allow regular customers to enjoy their highballs in their very own mugs any time they visit. The mugs offer 30% greater capacity that a standard highball glass.
