Whisky Glasses: Which Is The Best?
Goodness. Some people can get very snobby and picky about how to drink whisky, extending this to the subject of whisky glasses.
Quite frankly, if getting your knickers in a twist over whether you’re using the right glass or the best glass is getting in the way of you enjoying your whisky, then it’s time to just relax. Chill. Drink your whisky out of whatever glass you have available. The people who matter won’t be judging you, and the people who judge you don’t matter.
Whisky tumblers
When we first started drinking whisky, we were only aware of whisky tumblers as the so-called official glasses to use. I blame the movies and TV, with their scenes of various moguls and their whisky decanters, ice buckets and tumblers, going through the ritual of pouring themselves a Scotch On The Rocks after a long hard day spent taking over the world.
And indeed, this is where the tumbler comes into its own. It is the perfect glass to use if you are having your whisky with ice, or if you are adding a mixer such as soda, ginger ale or coke.
But it doesn’t only have to be used for that purpose. You can quite happily use tumblers if you are drinking your whisky neat or with a bit of water. We did for many years.
Tulip-shaped whisky glasses
Nowadays, we also have some tulip-shaped whisky glasses. We have two types, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s tasting glass, and the Glencairn glass. Although the two differ slightly in shape, the idea is the same – a slightly bulbous base, tapering in at the top.
The point of this shape is to concentrate the aroma of the whisky at your nose, enhancing the tasting experience. It does work. I wouldn’t say the effect is so significant that your life is not complete until you’ve used a tulip-shaped glass to taste your whisky. It’s not. The effect is more subtle than that, but it is certainly there. As a result, we now use our tulip-shaped glasses when we are enjoying our single malt scotch whiskies on their own, and keep our tumblers for use with mixers or cocktails that require “old-fashioned” glasses (such as the Whiskey Sour).
Buy a Glencairn whisky glass online:
From Amazon.com: Glencairn Whisky Glasses (Set of 4)
From Amazon.co.uk: Glencairn Crystal BMG1 The Glencairn Whiskey Glass
From eBay: (Note: Clicking on link will take you to the eBay site of your country)
That said, there is no hard and fast rule
If there was going to be one, it would be “use a glass” – any glass, to be sure, but do use a glass. Even those of us who are very relaxed about our whisky drinking may raise our eyebrows slightly if you started swigging straight from the bottle. There are perhaps some standards that should be maintained….