The Best Cocktail Glasses: What to Buy First

Buy for the drinks you already make, four of each. If you live on Old Fashioneds, rocks glasses come first. If you like long, fizzy drinks, start with highballs. Four covers a couple of friends and one clumsy moment.

Not sure which glass a recipe wants? Ask two questions. Is there ice in the glass? Then it is a rocks glass or a highball, and a mixer means highball. No ice at all? Then it is a coupe.

A rocks glass is for anything served over ice: Old Fashioneds, Negronis, whiskey with one big cube. Look for 8 to 10 oz (about 250 ml), a heavy base and a mouth wide enough for that cube. The heavy base also stands up to stirring or pressing sugar in the glass.

A highball is for long drinks with a mixer: Gin and Tonics, Mojitos, Tom Collins. Look for 10 to 12 oz (about 350 ml), tall and straight with a heavy base. A narrow glass keeps fizz longer than a wide one, and this will likely be the hardest-working glass you own.

A coupe is for drinks served with no ice: Daiquiris, Sidecars, Manhattans. The stem keeps your warm hand off a cold drink, and the wide bowl is harder to slosh than a V-shaped glass. Look for about 6 to 7 oz (about 200 ml) and a thin rim. Bigger is not better: a shaken drink comes to around 4 to 5 oz, and in a huge glass it looks lonely and warms up fast.

A Nick and Nora is the one extra glass worth buying. It is a small stemmed glass, around 5 to 6 oz, with a narrower mouth and higher sides than a coupe. It is named for the hard-drinking couple in The Thin Man films.

The shape solves two problems. Higher sides make it harder to spill on the walk to the couch, and the small size means you finish a Martini or Manhattan while it is still cold. If you mostly make stirred drinks, buy these in place of coupes.

Thin rims are worth spending on, at least for stemmed glasses. You touch the rim with every sip, and a fine one gets out of the way of the drink. Rocks glasses and highballs can stay sturdy and budget.

Read the size, not just the shape. Coupes run from small to huge, and that one number decides whether your drink looks right in the glass.

Buy a spare or two of anything with a stem. Stems are the first thing to go, usually in the sink.

Chill your glass, whatever you buy. Ten minutes in the freezer does more for a drink with no ice than a fancier glass will. Thrift stores are worth a look too, since mismatched old coupes look great and nobody needs a matching set.

Skip the V-shaped Martini glass at first. It looks the part and spills if you sneeze. A coupe or a Nick and Nora does the same job with less mopping.

Skip hurricane glasses, copper mugs, margarita glasses and flutes until you make those drinks every week. A Mule tastes fine in a highball, and a big wine glass will hold a tropical drink. Boxed sets with eight shapes are the same trap: you will use two.

No nice glasses yet? Use what you have. A small wine glass stands in for a coupe, and a jam jar makes a fine highball. The drink does not know what it is in.