Size Matters
Earlier this week at The Spirit World, cocktail expert Robert Hess addressed the history of that most iconic barroom vessel, the Martini glass. You know the one I mean: its V-shape sleek and modern, easily rendered in neon and often seen in the company of an olive.
While the V-shaped glass is certainly the most prominent type of stemware found in the cocktail kingdom, this wasn’t always the case: a tour of old cocktail manuals and bar catalogs reveals an array of glasses designed to deliver a short one, ranging from Marie-Antoinette coupes to tulip-shaped goblets.
But what really got my attention is the way sizes have shifted. Look for a cocktail glass in the housewares section of a department store and you’ll find 9- to 12-ounce monstrosities more suitable for use as birdbaths than for serving a respectable drink. Here in Seattle, one of the most popular bars in town draws its name from the gargantuan size of its drinks, poured into glasses so obscenely large that a woozy patron could topple forward and drown in one. If Morgan Spurlock were to reprise Supersize Me in many American bars, his liver would give out halfway through the film.
Those coupes, goblets and vintage V-shaped glasses our ancestors hoisted were much more demure. Venture into an antique or thrift store and look at the stemware selection: those 3- to 5-ounce glasses aren’t necessarily for cordials; that’s how big the average cocktail was served (with ample room at the top to prevent spillage). Need proof? Take a look at the Gibson ordered by Cary Grant in North by Northwest, or at Nick & Nora’s Martinis in The Thin Man: tidy, neat little glasses, capable of delivering enough libation to put some pep in your step, but not leave you mumbling incoherently on the floor (or worse yet, in your car).
Fortunately, many quality cocktail bars have figured out that smaller is better. At Vessel in Seattle, the bar recently shifted to using all vintage stemware; both because it’s very attractive, but also because vintage glasses hold smaller, safer, more responsible portions (the bar’s previous coupes were elegant, but larger, and patrons complained if the glass wasn’t served full).
What’s your take? Do you sometimes find the size of drinks you’re served excessive, overwhelming and maybe even downright dangerous? Let’s hear it.
About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.
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4 Comments:
I do find large drinks excessive. It took me and my wife about a year of deliberate searching to locate Martini glasses that hold 6 ounces (we pour, usually, 4 ounce martinis). A drink that is too large will be too warm, too diluted and/or too intoxicating all on its own before it's done.
ccbweb at 3:56PM on 01/23/08
Martini glasses are aesthetically gorgeous to me, but ergonomically a mess-- the shape make them so prone to sloshing. So I appreciate the idea of a larger martini glass, but only if it still has the same smaller serving size inside. Then I'd get to keep all of my drink instead of accidentally sloshing half of it onto the floor. But I guess it's too much to hope for people to accept a glass that isn't overflowing with booze. My martini glasses at home are a "demure" size, and I can barely manage to get them from the kitchen to the living room without spilling-- but, then, I must be a klutz!
Tactful_Cactus at 4:19PM on 01/23/08
If I'm going to be drinking a martini, I don't mind if it comes in a smaller glass, as it is, after all, straight booze. However, some places I've been, (P.D.T. in the East Village, I'm looking at you) serve exorbitantly priced cocktails in 3-ounce glasses, some of which have so little actual booze in them that they could be mistaken for fruit juice. This just upsets and disappoints me when I see it set down in front of me. For 12 bucks I want a big drink, damnit!
DanielJ at 4:49PM on 01/23/08
What a timely article! My husband and I love the little cocktail glasses Pegu Club, Little Branch and the like (despite the $14 price) and have been searching for them for ages. We like to experiment with mixology at home (because, again, $14!) and we wanted little glasses because they're more fun to drink from, you drink less (or more, depending!), and we have a minuscule apartment with cabinets that, frankly, won't fit your average sized martini glasses. We narrowed down our search to small champagne coupes--figuring they would be easier to find than the small, curved martini glasses at Pegu or even small, v-shaped martini glasses--but couldn't even find them (save for one or two at Housing Works and crystal ones at Bergdorf's). But, I hit gold last weekend in...Paris. 4 1/2 ounce champagne coupes--very Nick and Nora--12 for 15 Euro. I carried them back on the plane along with my macarons. In any event, another good reason to go to Paris. (If any one is interested, I found them at A. Simon at 48 rue Montmartre not too far from E. Dehillerin.) They work beautifully for cocktails--although we've not yet tried them with champagne!
Duckwise at 2:26PM on 01/24/08