How to Choose the Proper Cocktail Glass

Instructions

• Step 1: Have a highball Mixed drinks like gin and tonics and Long Island iced teas go into a tall, 10- to 12-ounce, straight-sided glass known as a "highball."
• Step 2: Use a Collins glass Use the highball's taller, skinnier cousin, the 14- to 16-ounce Collins glass, for weaker, juice-based cocktails like Cape Cods and screwdrivers. The reduced surface keeps drinks colder, longer.
• TIP: Always put stronger cocktails in shorter glasses; they take up less space because they've got less mixer in them.
• Step 3: Know your sour glasses Use a sour glass when serving a whiskey sour or some other drink that ends in "sour." A shorter, slightly wider version of a champagne flute, the sour glass lends elegance to drinks with a foam head and allows the drinker to preserve the cocktail's coldness by holding it by the stem.
• Step 4: Be old-fashioned Serve "on-the-rocks" cocktails, which are liquor poured over ice, in an old-fashioned glass, also known as a "rocks glass."
• Step 5: Plot a coup Use a coupette glass, which has a broad rim for dipping into salt or anchoring a fruit garnish, when you make margaritas and daiquiris.
• Step 6: Be prepared for Hurricanes Use Hurricane glasses – so named because they resemble Hurricane lanterns – to serve their namesake drink and any exotic, tropical concoctions.
• Step 7: Use martini glasses Use martini glasses for martinis and any shaken, strained cocktail, like a Cosmopolitan. The conical shape helps prevent ingredients from separating.
• FACT: The term for an abnormal or insatiable craving for alcohol is dipsomania.

You Will Need

• A variety of glasses