If you’re considering creating your personal home-bar, you’ll need to invest in the right cocktail glasses to really enhance the drinking experience.
From highball and lowball glasses to coupè and martini glasses, each type of cocktail glass plays an important role in bringing out the complexities of flavours, aromas and colours of the drinks.
We’ve put together this handy guide to help you learn which is the right type of cocktail glass to use for each different cocktail!
1. Highball Cocktail Glass
Highball glasses are tall and narrow and used to serve ‘tall’ cocktails such as a Gin and Tonic, Mojito and a Long Island Iced Tea. Typically, these glasses are used when a large proportion of the cocktail contains a non-alcoholic mixer and is poured over ice. Professional bartenders like to use this type of glass as it allows them to build the drink directly inside the glass itself. It often gets mistaken for a Collins cocktail class which looks very similar but is slightly taller and thinner and primarily used for a Tom Collins or Joan Collins cocktail.
2. Lowball Cocktail Glass
Lowball cocktail glasses are (we’re sure you can guess) simply shorter versions of the highball glasses. These glasses, which are sometimes also known as an old-fashioned glass, are short and wide and used for drinks such as the classic Old Fashioned, Negroni and a Vodka Sour. With their solid bases, the lowball glasses are ideal for drinks that have muddled ingredients to help release the flavours and bind them with the alcohol. They’re also the perfect glass to use if you’re planning on drinking something neat.
3. Martini Cocktail Glass
A martini cocktail glass is one of the most popular glasses that serve a wide variety of cocktails. With long stems to reduce any heat transfer from hands to the glass and a domed shape to enhance the aroma, these glasses are primarily used for Cosmopolitan, Martinis, Manhattans and Gimlets. As the sides of these glasses are steeply sloped they prevent the ingredients separating and allow for garnishes on toothpicks to stay upright too.
4. Margarita Cocktail Glass
While it’s become normal to serve a Margarita in other glasses such as a martini glass, a lowball or even in a pint glass, nothing can compare serving it in a traditional margarita glass. There are a few different variations of the margarita glass, but the most common one features a welled bowl which is narrow at the stem and broader at the rim.The rim of the glass is also often garnished with salt to aid the flavour of a standard Margarita or Tommy's Margarita cocktail. These types of glasses are rare to find in the average home but will definitely add a touch of class to your at-home bar. Plus, they can be used to serve food such as a shrimp cocktail.
