Great Recipes and Great Food

Not many people fully understand why you can buy so many different shaped glasses in the shops these days. To the uninitiated the variety may seem a little unnecessary, surely they can’t change the flavor of the liquid they hold can they? Well actually they can, and here is a breakdown of some of the most common glass types and how they affect the drink.

Whisky Glasses. Whisky is traditionally drunk out of a tumbler-shaped glass and there is good reason for this. Although mixers are sometimes added to a whisky drink, it is still frequently enjoyed straight and therefore in smaller volumes. What this means is that if it were served in a tall thin glass with ice, the ice would have to be stacked up and only a small amount would be in contact with the whisky. As ice is necessary to chill the whisky and release its deeper flavors, it’s best to serve the drink in a wide shallow glass where the ice can move around and have more contact area with the liquid, thus chilling the whisky more.

Champagne Glasses.This type of wine is served in long thin glasses and again there is a good reason for it. The bubbles in champagne contain quite a overpowering aroma that is forcefully released into the glass as the bubbles burst when the reach the surface. If the glass had a wide rim then your nose would be situated within the glass when drinking and the powerful gasses would effect flavour by numbing the sinuses.

Red and White Wine Glasses. You will find that red wine glasses tend to have a large, deep-bowled body. This allows the drink to be swirled around quite aggressively, liberating lots of hidden flavors that would otherwise not be released.Further more, your nose can comfortably fit into the body of a wide glass, meaning you can breath in more of the wine’s aromatic offerings. White wine glasses are generally smaller and thinner. The reason for this is that white wine tastes better when the flavours are condensed in the glass and the aromas not absorbed so much via the nasal passage.