Once the home bar cabinet is in place, the next big challenge is to gather tools, equipment, beverages and most importantly stemware or the glassware.
Well, today in my post I will talk on the main glasses that you could buy for your home bar. You may use any number of different glasses for cocktails or serving a drink and there is absolutely nothing wrong. There aren’t any rules, other than a specific one that the longer the drink the taller the glass.
My take on it is one need not stock dozens of different types of glasses at one go. It is a good idea to decide to buy at the start a few essential types and styles of glasses. A glass is vital to the outcome of a good cocktail or a spirt and it should be visually appealing. For example, stem glasses allow the drinker to hold it without warming the drink, while one with straight sides is best for showing off colours and layers of colour.
Some of the essential glassware and personally my favourites to add to the bar cabinet are listed below:
Martini: A Martini glass is by far the most popular cocktail glass which is also commonly seen in movies and snaps. It has a stem and an inverted bowl which gives it a V shape and is popularly used for straight-up drinks. Some of the regular cocktails which get served in a Martini glass are – Martini, Gimlet, Grasshopper, Cosmopolitan and so on.
Flute: Any festive occasion or a celebration calls for a bottle of sparkling wine or a bottle of champagne and there is nothing better than a flute glass to serve it. For taste, champagne and sparkling wines are best served in slim flutes which aid to keep it cool and retain the bubbles and prolong the fizz. Alternatively, at a Champagne Saucer could also be added.
High Ball: This is tall cylindrical, straight-sided, tall tumbler used for long cocktails like fruit punches and some shooters. Alternatively, you could have the Tom Collins glass which is almost similar to High ball glass but just a little taller. These glasses are good for gin and tonic, vodka and soda, whiskey and ginger ale. Generally, these house around 12oz that is roughly 850 ml.
Low Ball: This glass is kind of a shorter tumbler and wide lowball that holds around 200 ml of fluid. These glasses are also sometimes called the old fashioned or rocks glass. This is used to serve drinks such as Scotch and Bourbon. Cocktails like Old Fashioned, God Father, are some of the popular drinks served in low ball glasses along with spirit-forward drinks.
Margarita: The sound of Margarita triggers Tequila the spirit from the land of Mexico. Margarita glass gets its name from the popular tequila-based drink Margarita. It is a variant of a cocktail glass or champagne coupe with a wide rim & popularly works well with frozen margaritas and seafood cocktails. It is a wonderful glass to have in the home bar.
Of course, other glasses like the Pilsner and Pint glass for beer, Hurricane glass for long tropical drinks, Wines glasses for the White and the Red Wines, Sherry glass, Snifter for Brandy or Cognac, could also be added to a bar cabinet to have a wider choice.