Cocktail For Everybody: Glasses

Glass is an integral part of the cocktail. Because of this fact is not unimportant detail in what kind of glass you will offer a drink. Good cocktail served in the wrong glass will go completely unnoticed. A number of cocktails are traditionally served in glasses with precise size and shape, which are perfectly able to highlight features and visually display drink's flavor. A simple rule is that drinks with ice require taller glasses, but sometimes it is not so easy to decide which glass to use.

Liqueur glass

In general, strong drinks, which are served undiluted and without ice, are served in a small glass with stem, the so-called liqueur glass (3 or 5 cl). This glass is particularly suitable for vodka, liqueurs and fruit brandies, and the British serve in it and their finest whiskey (single malt).

Old fashioned glass

Whiskey is generally served in a short tumbler. Tumbler is a glass with no stem, slightly narrowed at the bottom. Basic types are short tumbler and tall tumbler, also named Delmonico after a famous bar in New York who had first started to use it. Besides short and tall tumbler, there is a middle tumbler (which is higher and wider than the short tumbler and with equal volume to tall tumbler), known as the old fashioned and suitable for mixtures with a lot of ice, soda and fruit. For whiskey with ice, short tumbler (14 cl) is being used. This tumbler is also suitable for a number of cocktails that are based on whiskey, vodka, gin and brandy, and are served with lots of ice.

Cocktail glass

Dry mixtures, at which the ice must percolate, are traditionally unimaginable in some other glasses besides classical cocktail glass. Cocktail glass has a long stem and it is clean in shape so that the color and viscosity of the drinks come to full expression. The stem is preventing warming of cocktail while it is held in hand and this way it stays cold long enough. Typical cocktail glass has a volume of 13-15 cl., but there are and double cocktail glasses with capacity up to 20 cl.

Unlike cocktail glass, tumbler is held with the whole hand. Because of this way of serving drinks, to keep them cold for a long time, a lot of ice cubes are added. Hence, short tumbler is also called rocks glass.

Highball glass

For long drinks (tall drinks), where strong drinks are diluted with soda, sparkling wine or other non-alcoholic or mild alcoholic supplements, or maybe pure fruit juices and various beverages based on milk, tall tumblers are used for serving. They are also called high-ball glasses or Collins glasses. They usually have a volume of 28 cl. (some large tumblers can have a volume of 50 cl.), and this is particularly useful type of glass. From it even beer can be drank, ice tea, soda and mineral water; and, above all, in it cocktails can be mixed (it replaces mixing glass).

White wine glass

Red wine glass

Wine glasses, like cocktail glasses, must have a stem which prevents warming of wine with hands and allows you to see the wine clearly. Never pour wine into colored glasses. For all types of wines you can use a universal wine glass in tulip shape, with volume of 23 cl. Some cocktails may look nice in them, especially with whipped cream. White wine glasses have a slightly higher stem and higher volume than ones for red wine, and they can also be used for making mixtures with greater amounts of fruit.

Champagne coupe

Sparkling wines, and their cocktails, also require special glasses - high slender glass placed on a short stem, with 14 cl. of volume, or traditional shallow, wide champagne coupe with stem of medium length, that is no longer in use today. If you already have one, it can serve you for serving some kind of cocktail mixes.

Balloon glass

You probably know that brandy, especially cognac, is a drink of most noble bouquet. To really enjoy them, good-quality brandy and cognac must be drunk from a glass for cognac, with 28 cl. volume. This glass on a short stem has a balloon shape and it is often called balloon glass. At the top it is narrowed - not to lose aroma. Glass of brandy is held with the entire palm and from such a warmed beverage breaks more intense aroma.