Nihonshu Highball (日本酒ハイボール, sparkling sake)

The hesitation here is the word cocktail. It sounds as if the sake needs managing, sweetening, or dressing up for company. It doesn't. Nihonshu, what we call sake at the table, only needs cold soda, good ice, and a strip of citrus peel to show a lighter face.

The one detail that decides it is temperature. Chill the glass, chill the sake, chill the soda, and build the drink over one large piece of ice. Cold keeps the bubbles fine and the flavor clean. Warm soda goes flat at once, and small ice melts quickly, thinning the sake before it has had a fair chance to speak.

Use a dry junmai, not the proudest bottle in the cupboard and not the cheapest one hiding at the back, poor thing. Junmai has enough rice body to stay present when lengthened with soda, while a fragrant ginjō can lose its perfume under the bubbles. We pour gently, stir once, and stop. Nothing hidden. A Nihonshu Highball belongs easily beside grilled fish, vinegared vegetables, and the first hot evenings when beer feels loud and wine feels heavy.