When I ordered the Sherry Colada Highball at New York’s new bi-level bar, Sip & Guzzle, the drink appeared as a vision of ultramodern minimalism—a translucent, cream soda–colored drink in an ungarnished workaday glass, the spear ice invisible thanks to its clarity. The bar comes from the brains of Shingo Gokan and Steve Schneider, two of the cocktail world’s most pedigreed talents (the former helmed the bar at Angel’s Share before opening a number of acclaimed bars across Asia; the latter was the long-standing head bartender at New York’s Employees Only before becoming a partner in the bar’s Singapore outpost, among others). I imagined some technological magic had taken place behind the scenes—centrifugal clarification, maybe, to strip the drink of its creaminess, partnered with force carbonation to transform the drink into a highball. The first sip supported my theory—it had all the notes of a genuine colada (minus the rum): pineapple brightness and coconut creaminess in a carbonated package. 

But when I asked Schneider, a Sip & Guzzle co-owner and the drink’s creator, how it was made, he insisted it was nothing more than cream sherry and coconut-pineapple seltzer, just like it says on the menu. I asked if the seltzer was made in-house. “We import it from out of state,” he quipped. By “out of state,” he means where he lives, in nearby New Jersey. The seltzer in question is pineapple-coconut Bubly, a widely available competitor to LaCroix. It was at home in New Jersey, too, where Schneider first landed on the idea to mix cream sherry and seltzer, a combo that came together thanks mostly to serendipity: “They were all that I had at my house,” says Schneider of the two ingredients.

Like any good highball should, it demonstrates the alchemy of two ingredients thoughtfully combined in the glass to make something greater than the sum of its parts. Schneider poured a sample of the seltzer on its own and it only reinforced this notion. Alone, it had only a hint of the coconut and pineapple flavor that comes through when it’s mixed with the sherry. “The sherry really makes the flavor pop,” says Schneider, who notes that he tried other styles of sherry, but most made the drink too dry. Other flavors of seltzer, however, are fair game, so long as they’re sugar-free. “I tried it with peach seltzer, too, and it had this peaches-and-cream vibe.” Right now, he adds, “strawberry seltzer has my heart.”

Low-proof and easy-drinking, the Sherry Colada Highball is like a Rebujito on a tropical vacation, the sort of unfussy, deeply satisfying drink that works any time of day or night. For Schneider, it’s as perfect in a bar setting as it is lounging at home. “It’s what I drink when playing video games,” he says. “I can get a buzz, but still see the bad guys.”