Cinema Highball

About the Cinema Highball

Two ingredients, one glass: the Cinema Highball is simply Timber Creek Florida Rum built over ice with Coca Cola Classic, a rum and cola combination that has been a bar and movie theater staple for generations. There is nowhere for a rum to hide in a drink this simple, which is precisely why the base spirit matters so much here. Timber Creek’s rum comes off the still with a rounded, slightly sweet profile carrying notes of brown sugar, baking spice, and a faint grassy backbone from the fermented base, all developed through the distillery’s grain to glass production on its 240 acre Crestview farm.

That character gives the cola something to play against instead of simply diluting the rum into background flavor, so the finished drink tastes like rum and cola together rather than cola with a vague boozy edge. To build it, fill a chilled Collins glass with ice cubes, add two ounces of the rum, and top with four and a half ounces of Coca Cola Classic, giving it a quick stir to combine. No shaking, no straining, no fuss, which is part of the appeal; this is a cocktail built for speed and consistency whether you are making one drink or a round for a group.

A lime wedge squeezed in and dropped into the glass is optional but traditional if you want a little acidity to cut the sweetness. Given its snack food pairings, salted popcorn, pretzels, and potato chips all play well against the drink’s sugary cola backbone, the Cinema Highball earns its name honestly as a movie night or casual hangout pour. It is an easy drink to make quickly for guests, but its simplicity also means it goes down fast, so keep track of how many you pour and drink water in between rounds.

Two ingredients, one glass: the Cinema Highball is simply Timber Creek Florida Rum built over ice with Coca Cola Classic, a rum and cola combination that has been a bar and movie theater staple for generations. There is nowhere for a rum to hide in a drink this simple, which is precisely why the base spirit matters so much here. Timber Creek’s rum comes off the still with a rounded, slightly sweet profile carrying notes of brown sugar, baking spice, and a faint grassy backbone from the fermented base, all developed through the distillery’s grain to glass production on its 240 acre Crestview farm.

That character gives the cola something to play against instead of simply diluting the rum into background flavor, so the finished drink tastes like rum and cola together rather than cola with a vague boozy edge. To build it, fill a chilled Collins glass with ice cubes, add two ounces of the rum, and top with four and a half ounces of Coca Cola Classic, giving it a quick stir to combine. No shaking, no straining, no fuss, which is part of the appeal; this is a cocktail built for speed and consistency whether you are making one drink or a round for a group.

A lime wedge squeezed in and dropped into the glass is optional but traditional if you want a little acidity to cut the sweetness. Given its snack food pairings, salted popcorn, pretzels, and potato chips all play well against the drink’s sugary cola backbone, the Cinema Highball earns its name honestly as a movie night or casual hangout pour. It is an easy drink to make quickly for guests, but its simplicity also means it goes down fast, so keep track of how many you pour and drink water in between rounds.