Hi guys! My name is Moe Harris. I am here at the Professional Bartending School in Arlington, Virginia.
Today, I’m going to go over some basic glassware for you, explain the distinction between them and why we might use each one for a specific drink. And then show you how you can actually interchange a couple of them if you don’t have all of these things available to you, okay.
We’re going to start off with a basic shot glass. This is basically for a straight shot of liquor. Somebody would ask for a shot of Jack Daniels or shot of Vodka, a shot of anything really. It’s just essentially going to go in this little glass. It does typically measure one ounce. So, in addition to being useful as a glass, you could also use it as a little measuring cup for your alcohol, okay.
This is called an old-fashioned glass. It’s designed to be thicker and heavier. It’s got a nice durable base and thick walls. This is designed for things to be muddled in. Muddling, you guys are going to see, is a method of mixing, or actually smashing something into this glass. It’s designed to be durable, so that it doesn’t shatter when you smash things into it. Its’ also nice size for shooters, a shooter is basically a mini mixed drink that you drink like a shot, okay.
This is a rocks glass. This is traditionally served for a drink that’s basically all alcohol, something like a Black Russian, Vodka and Kahlua, something like a Rusty Nail, a Scotch and Drambuie. And since all you have in this glass is alcohol, you don’t necessarily want to fill up a bigger glass like this, Collins glass with Vodka and Kahlua. That would be a lot of a Vodka and Kalhua.
So, essentially it’s just a nice sized glass, okay. This is your basic Highball Glass. You could think of this glass as this and that drink type of glass. Any time you hear something this and that, Vodka and Cranberry, Rum and Coke, Gin and Tonic, anytime you have one alcohol and some sort of juice or mixer or soda, this is the basic size glass you’re going to use. So, again Rum and Coke, Gin and Tonic, Vodka and Cranberry, that’s the one we’re going to use, okay.
This is a Collins Glass, technically a frosted Collins glass. Frosted meaning its got frosted glass, makes no difference. Anyways, you could think that this is the big brother of the highball glass. You are going to go with the basic liquor and mix combination, but this traditionally has more than one alcohol. So, something like a Cape Cod which is Vodka and Cranberry goes with Vodka and Cranberry. Something like a Woo-Woo has Vodka, Cranberry, but it also has a little bit of peach schnapps on top. So, because of the extra alcohol, we’re going to make a little bit more room for more juice, okay.
Now, I’ve got the Margarita glass and quite honestly, I don’t know what this is about guys. I have heard stories about being shaped like a sombrero for your Margarita, really all you’re going to put in this thing is a Margarita. And I am not sure exactly why this is shaped like this, but I do know why it is stemmed. So I am actually going to take care of these two drinks at the same time. These two glasses, I should say.
You got stemmed glassware and stemmed glassware is essentially for your drinks that are going to be chilled and then served without ice and the reason why you want to chill them and serve them without ice is because of the main ingredient in the drink. In a Margarita, the main ingredient is sour mix, which is like lemonade and nobody wants to drink warm lemonade.
So, what you are going to do is chill it for them and then serve it without ice. Something like a Banchi or grasshopper, the main ingredient is cream, which is like milk and nobody wants warm milk.
So, what we are going to do, we are going to chill the drinks and then serve them in stemmed glassware, stemmed glassware basically, so you could handle it without warming the back up with your own body temperature.
We have the Champagne Flute. All champagne is or sparkling wine is wine that’s had the bubbles left in it from the fermentation process and you do want to keep these things carbonated. This is basically for your sparkling wines and the reason why you want to keep these things as carbonated as you can for as long as you can is as the bubbles pop in the wine, it does help release the bouquet or the aroma that’s specific to that product.
So, having it fluted like this, actually reduces less of the surface area to the atmosphere, which is what draws up the bubbles and makes it pop. Actually what’s really nice about it is because it does have a smaller and more closed mouth, as it does also allow the bouquet or the nose, if you will, to be concentrated right under your nose, that way you could enjoy this thing as much as you can.
And finally, we’ve got this little fat thing here. This is called the brandy snifter and this is designed for something called a distilled wine. Basically, a wine that’s been made a lot stronger through a process called distillation. Basically, it’s separating the water from the alcohol and the wine. Basically, brandies and cognacs, things like Grand Marnier, they will go in this glass and this glass is designed to enhance the characteristics of the wine based product like a cognac.
It’s going to fit in your hand like that and that’s too a warm the product up because it is a wine it does have a bouquet or an aroma. So, having it served at room temperature and actually even slightly warmed by our body temperature, also helps to release the bouquet and the aroma because it’s shallow. It really efficiently heats the product. Again, it does have a closed mouth just like the champagne flute right here. It does concentrate the bouquet under your nose.
And anyways these are some basic glassware, there is definitely more glasses out there for specialty drinks, but these are some pretty glasses and I want you to know, what I want you to know, I want you to know that glasses can be used interchangeably. For example, if at your home or at your bar and you don’t have a margarita glass. Now there’s actually, then there’s nothing wrong with serving in a martini glass or a cocktail glass. You know, I already explained a Woo-Woo should go in this glass. But many bars and many homes, you might only have these two glasses, so if you have these two glasses then a Woo-Woo should be served inhere. Why don’t you just go ahead and put it in here, it’s quite alright.
Anyways with that said, now that we’ve got some basic glassware let's make some basic drinks.
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