Mixology 101 · 6 shapes
Glassware
A cabinet of special glasses isn’t needed. A handful of shapes covers every recipe on this site, and each shape does a job: keeping bubbles, holding ice, or keeping a drink served up cold.
Rocks or old fashioned glass
Short, wide and heavy-bottomed. For spirit-forward drinks over ice (Old Fashioneds, Negronis) and sours on the rocks. The wide mouth leaves room for a large cube and puts the aroma right under the nose.
18 recipes
Oxbow Old Fashioned
Spicy Mango Margarita
Smoked Cherry Old Fashioned
Maple Whiskey Sour
Winter Spice Negroni
Fig Old Fashioned
Cucumber Basil Smash
Smoked Maple Old Fashioned
Honeyed Bourbon Bliss
Blackberry Bramble
Velvet Sazerac
Silver Smoke Margarita
Eclipse Old Fashioned
Twilight Negroni
Old Fashioned
Negroni
Whiskey Sour
Highball or Collins glass
Tall and narrow. For anything topped with soda, ginger beer or tonic. The small surface area keeps bubbles longer, and the height holds plenty of ice so a long drink stays cold.
18 recipes
Coupe, martini or cocktail glass
Stemmed, for drinks served “up” with no ice. The stem keeps your hand from warming the drink. Chill it first with ice water or a few minutes in the freezer. A coupe is harder to spill than a V-shaped martini glass.
24 recipes
Pear and Elderflower Martini
Grapefruit Basil Martini
Vanilla Espresso Martini
Mocha Mint Martini
Herbal Honey Sour
Chocolate Orange Martini
Espresso Martini
Blue Lagoon Martini
Spiced Rum Flip
Emerald Martini
Crimson Clover
Cosmic Gimlet
Vintage Vesper
Sunset Boulevardier
Midnight Manhattan
Golden Era Martini
Margarita
Daiquiri
Manhattan
Dry Martini
Gimlet
Boulevardier
Classic Espresso Martini
Cold Brew Espresso "Martini"
Wine glass
For spritzes and sangria: room for ice, bubbles and fruit, and a bowl that gathers aroma.
4 recipes
Julep cup
A metal cup that frosts over when packed with crushed ice and stirred. A rocks glass works if you don’t have one.
3 recipes
Mule cup
A metal mug that feels very cold in the hand. The IBA Moscow Mule allows a mule cup or a rocks glass; the drink tastes the same in either.
2 recipes
Chilling a glass
For drinks served up, fill the glass with ice and water while mixing, then tip it out just before straining. A few minutes in the freezer works too. A cold glass keeps a drink with no ice in it cold for longer.
5 recipes don’t name a glass; a rocks or highball glass suits most of them.