A cocktail glass is a stemmed

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

with an inverted cone bowl, mainly used to serve straight-up

cocktail A cocktail is a mixed drink, usually alcoholic beverage, alcoholic. Most commonly, a cocktail is a combination of one or more liquor, spirits mixed with other ingredients, such as juices, flavored syrups, tonic water, Shrub (drink), shrubs, and ...

s. The term ''cocktail glass'' is often used interchangeably with ''martini glass'', despite their differing slightly. Today, the glass is used to serve a variety of cocktails, such as the martini and its variations ( Gibson, French martini, vodka martini, espresso martini, appletini),

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, Brandy Alexander, pisco sour, Negroni, cosmopolitan, gimlet, and the

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

History

Invented in the late 19th century, its form derives from the fact that all

s are traditionally served chilled and contain an aromatic element. Thus, the stem allows the drinker to hold the glass without affecting the temperature of the drink, an important aspect due to the lack of added

ice Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...

which in other drinks serves to cool the drink, and the wide bowl places the surface of the drink directly under the drinker's nose, ensuring the aromatic element has the desired effect. In the modern day, cocktail glasses without stems are common; however, these glasses warm very quickly, a phenomenon the original stem addressed.

Martini glass

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Although the terms ''cocktail glass'' and ''martini glass'' are often used interchangeably, a martini glass is slightly larger, with a more conical rather than rounded shape, features a longer stem, and has a wider rim. Despite a popular story that says the martini glass was invented during

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

so that in the case of a raid on a speakeasy, the large rim allowed the drink to be easily disposed of, the martini glass was formally introduced in the 1925 Paris Exhibition as a modernist take on the Champagne coupe, and wasn't originally used as it is today: in films of the 1920s it is shown to be used to hold champagne, like the

coupe A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...

. However, despite the design taking influence from the geometric aesthetics of the era's architecture, interiors and furnishings, it was designed less for aesthetics and more for functionality – with the longer stem reducing the warming effect of body heat upon the contents of the glass, and the widened brim increasing surface area, supposedly allowing the gin, the main ingredient in martinis, to release its bouquet. Steeply sloping sides prevent ingredients separating, and also serve to support a toothpick or olives on a cocktail skewer. The martini glass has somewhat fallen out of favour in modern times due to its tendency to spill drinks, and the coupe is sometimes used instead.

Sizes

A standard cocktail glass contains , though originally they were around in size. Oversized cocktail glasses, ranging in capacity from to large glasses of or more are available.

References

{{Cocktails Cocktails Drinking glasses

History

Martini glass

Sizes

See also

References