It’s Friday afternoon, you’ve made it through the long week, and it’s time for the weekly Happy Hour at the bar nearest to you. As you sip on your cocktail, you may have realised that your cocktails aren’t served in the same glass. So, your Martini is served in a cocktail glass, and your White Russian is served in an old-fashioned glass. Or, have you noticed when your glass may even be shaped like a boot?
Different glasswares have evolved to make cocktails taste better. Every glassware piece has its specific usage. Some liquids are meant to be sipped from specific type of glass. For example, your spirits require a thick glass. Beer mugs are used daily, and hence they are built to last. Champagne and wine glasses are technically used only for certain occasions, and are hence expensive and fragile.
Below are some most popular glassware types used in the hospitality industry and some are so common that you’ll find it in your kitchen and dining hall.
Beer mugs: These heavy thick mugs with handle and pint or pilsner glasses are meant to hold beer without breakage. Pilsner glasses are wide with top being wider than the bottom and pint glasses are larger, most tapering down to the bottom.
Cocktail/liquor glassware: Some common glasses under these categories includes margarita glass, martini glass, rock glass, shot, brandy snifters and Collin glass.
These glasses have different purposes. The margarita glass is usually large with a bowl shape, and followed by a smaller bowl below for a decorative touch. The rim of the glass is wide, so that it can be in salt/sugar to accent the drink.
On the other hand, martini glasses are meant to control the temperature of your alcohol since the drinks served in this glass will not have ice in them. It will be shaken or stirred with ice first, and then strained into it. That’s what ordering a drink “up” means. The cone shape serves to help maintain temperature, keep the ingredients pushed together (olives, spirits of different specific gravities, etc.).
Rock glass, also known as lowball glass, is the classic old-fashioned short squat glass used for serving drinks “on the rocks” or as a straight drink. Its main purpose is to make the sipper enjoy the alcohol with less or no mixers.
Shot glasses are the ones with extra thick bottom so that they absorb the shock of being slammed on a surface. It holds a single shot of alcohol.
Standard wine glass: Obviously, there are hundreds of variations within this group, but your standard wine glass has a stem. Holding the glass by the stem transfers less heat to the wine, so your hand isn’t warming it up as fast.
Aroma is one of the most important elements with wine, which is why your wine glass should have a large opening. If you can’t fit your nose in it while you’re drinking, you need yourself some new glasses. The basic rule of thumb is that reds need to have a broader opening, and narrower for whites.
Flute, mainly for champagne and other sparkling wines, are used so mainly to make the goal is to make the bubble last as long as possible. There’s often a bead etched at the bottom to give the bubbles a single point of nucleation. Aroma isn’t as important with these wines as they would be a red wine, so the opening is smaller to minimise the exposure to air.
Naturally, there are tons of other glasses. The list goes on and on, but these are the basics that will help you pretend you’re classy. Yes, you can drink any of these things out of a coffee mug, but having the right tool for the job generally adds to the experience. Cheers!
