Cocktail glass

What could be more quintessential to cocktails than the cocktail glass? Even a gin pennant (a maritime flag that invites others to come aboard and have a drink) usually sports a cocktail glass.

It’s also known as a martini glass, although I personally think that the Martini’s claim is not as obvious as the Old Fashioned has on its own glass. The famous conical shape did not come into vogue until 1925. Martini’s had been around since around 1900. Some people object to a Martini being served in anything but the conical cocktail glass, but  they are skipping over the early history of the drink. Sure, it’s supposed to be served in a stemmed, wide glass. But let’s not get too purist about the exact shape.

The stem is key to the cocktail glass: it’s for cocktails that are served without ice, but should be enjoyed as chilled as possible. The stem prevents your hand from directly warming the bowl and drink.

Another important thing: the glass of the bowl should be clear. Using coloured glass will spoil an unobstructed view of the drink, which is a pity. The stem, however, can have any embellishment or colour.

There are a lot of weird theories about the cocktail glass. They might seem plausible, but on closer inspection they don’t seem to make much sense.

Just read this entry of the CocktailDB if you’re looking for some trustworthy information.

What other information is being thrown around the internet about the cocktail glass? Well, here we go:

·        It helps prevent the different ingredients from separating.

How would that work? The cone-shape prevents the heavy density stuff from sinking down? How about the lighter density stuff: the same theory will hold that this will float upwards more easily. No, this is nonsense.

·        The wide open brim causes a higher surface tension, thereby opening up the drink and bringing out the aroma to the fullest.

Sure, a cocktail is about aroma, and the fact that your nose is above the drink when you drink it is great, of course. But that can be said about a lot of types of glasses.

Surface tension is dependent upon the type of liquid and the temperature. Not the shape of the container, nor the surface area. The slope of the bowl might even decrease the curvature of the liquid, thereby decreasing the pressure difference (and evaporation). I’m not an expert in fluid mechanics, but there’s certainly no higher surface tension.

·        During the Prohibition days, the glass was ideal to quickly dump the alcoholic beverage from your glass in case of a police raid.

Come on… how much time do you think you could gain by that? If there was a raid in a speakeasy, your best bet was getting out through the nearest escape route. Nobody was going to care whether you actually had a drink in your hand or not.

Besides, the cocktail glass in its current shape was first mainly used in Europe. The US would have to wait until after World War II before it was really embraced there.

Anyway, two things hold: it’s a stylish glass and it’s traditional. So apart from the chilled drink aspect, we have plenty reason to add the cocktail glass to our bar.