The 9 Bartender-Recommended Cocktail Glasses to Stock Your Home Bar

The next time you sit at a craft cocktail bar, take a second to consider the glass you’re holding and know that it went through serious vetting. When bartenders shop for glassware, for their bars and their homes, they consider weight, how it will feel in hand and how it will enhance the drink it’s holding.

Likewise, stocking your home bar should have its own set of requirements. Do you have room for six Nick & Noras on your bar cart? Will this coupe hold up to your martini-swilling, bull-in-a-china-shop best friend, Sean? If you’ve invested in a nugget ice machine, why not buy glasses to show it off at your next party? To help build a checklist, and inspire your next glassware purchase, we spoke with bartenders about their favorite cocktail glasses—from whiskey sippers to quaint punch cups—and how they’re using them.

For tall, refreshing pours

Ricardo Flores likes tall, straight-sided Stolzle’s New York Bar Collins glasses for the soda-topped Toki highballs, mojitos and cucumber coolers he serves at the rooftop Hot Tin Bar at the historic Pontchartrain Hotel. The bar director hails from Miami, tends bar in New Orleans and knows how to combat sticky, humid heat with a refreshing drink. These glasses, usually 13 to 16 ounces in volume, are so named for the late 19th century cocktails, the John Collins and Tom Collins. For everything from booze-free lemonade to gin and tonics and Palomas, Flores recommends Stolzle glasses for “the weight distribution of the glass, its elegant slenderness in style, and its durability,” he says.

Short, stout and versatile

Over the past year and a half, Dante Colombo, general manager of John Brown’s Underground in Lawrence, Kan., says he has worked to “massively upgrade” his selection of rocks glasses. In particular, he loves the deceptively durable, minimalist tumblers from Viski. Nearly every bar—home and professional—includes a set of rocks glasses, those short, stout, 8- to 10-ounce vessels that work for neat pours and cocktails on ice (aka on the rocks), but these are something different. Though the glasses have Negroni in their name, Colombo says they “could not be more perfect for other similarly sized cocktails and those served on a single 2-inch by 2-inch ice cube.” Think Old Fashioneds, Boulevardiers, Sazeracs, and espresso-based Carajillos. As an added bonus, the thin crystal rim “makes it perfect for holding citrus peels on the edge,” he says.

Pass the punch cup

Colombo also likes to incorporate punch cups into his glassware roster, including and has been eyeing the Viski crystal punch cups. They’re 8 ounces, stackable for easy storage, and have an angled bowl that’s easy to hold and cheers. He also sources granny-chic sets from a local antique mall, as well as from regulars and friends. His all-time favorite punch cups are made with iridescent cobalt blue carnival glass, but because of their size (usually 4 to 6 ounces), punch cups rarely work for drinks that need ice, he says. “The classic way around this problem is that they are simply the drinking vessels from a larger punch bowl that holds a large block of ice.”

There’s more to a hurricane

Hurricane glasses got their name from hurricane lanterns, whose shape they mimic, and lent their name to the dangerously boozy drink invented at Pat O’Brien’s in New Orleans. Will Elliot, managing partner and bar director at Brooklyn’s Maison Premiere, prefers Libbey’s 14.5-ounce glasses, which follow the classic shape and are “extremely durable.” He says the tall, generously proportioned glass lends itself to any drink poured over pebble or crushed ice. “You can layer ingredients, such as mint and bitters, which give the drink a nice architectural perspective.” If you need inspiration before buying a set, turn to the newly released “The Maison Premiere Almanac” and a recipe for the bar’s signature Absinthe Colada made with absinthe, rhum agricole, creme de menthe, pineapple juice and coconut syrup.

Metal meets crushed ice

If you think julep cups—dripping with condensation and Southern history—are reserved for Derby Day celebrations, think again. Juleps, rather than a single mint-topped drink, represent a whole category of cocktails. Barfly’s lightweight, virtually indestructible julep cups, available in stainless steel, black, copper and gold, are a great set to choose for home use. Like the hurricane glass, Elliott says that crushed or pebble ice is the common denominator for drinks served in these metal cups. His current favorites include a julep with cachaça and chai syrup and the “Vanderbilt Holiday” with green Chartreuse and raspberry syrup. “When serving cold beverages, it creates a beautiful snowy frost around the glass”—from the condensation on the cup’s metal body—“perfect for a refreshing cocktail, seltzer water or nonalcoholic drink, especially poolside this summer,” says Elliott.

For (nearly) all your shaken drinks

Originally designed for Champagne (and, legend has it, in the shape of a breast), coupes make a fine vessel for shaken cocktails, according to Emmanuel Treski, bar manager of Bar Julian in Savannah, Ga. Treski’s go-to coupe is the classically proportioned Leopold from Cocktail Kingdom. “It screams elegance, and allows you to make cocktails of all ranges,” he says, noting that its generous wash line allows for floats, foams and egg white meringues. Because coupes don’t (or really shouldn’t, please!) hold ice because they’re shallow and wide, it’s important to give most coupe-destined drinks—Margaritas, Daiquiris, Paper Planes, Cosmos—a good, hard shake over ice and strain, according to Treski. But these versatile glasses also accommodate stirred Martinis and Manhattans and all manner of sparkling wines.

The classic V

Martiny’s in Manhattan is an intimate ode to its namesake drink with a Japanese-influenced menu, and most nights you’ll see guests holding V-shaped glasses similar to these 5.5-ounce numbers from Riedel, filled with owner Takuma Wanatabe’s Grand Martini—a combination of gin, sherry, Port and cognac. While some bartenders prefer coupes for martinis, Watanabe does not stray from the V, an art deco-influenced shape introduced at the 1925 World’s Fair in Paris. “For my Martinis, I cherish the thick texture of gin, and a V-shaped martini glass embraces this texture in the best way,” he says, adding that the glass works for all the martini relatives you’ll make at home—Gimlets, Vespers, Gibsons and the like.

Petite and practical

Nick & Noras are named after the cocktail-guzzling, murder-solving couple in the 1934 movie “The Thin Man.” For home use, Nathan Elliott, lead bartender of Scotch Lodge in Portland, Ore., loves the modern, geometric Angled Nick & Nora from Viski. Bartenders prize the glasses for their modest size (around 5 ounces), design (they’re nearly spill proof) and old school charm. Elliott uses Nick & Noras for Manhattan variations and Martinis, as well as a summer daiquiri with smoky Islay scotch. “I often receive compliments on them when entertaining, because they are simple yet visually appealing,” he says. “Bonus: They also photograph well.”

For all your neat sips

Plenty of whiskey glasses mimic the shape of the classic Glencairn, whose tulip-shaped bowl was designed to enhance the aroma of single malts, but Elliott of Scotch Lodge imports his directly from Glencairn in Scotland and recommends that home bartenders buy on brand too. The imitators, he says, “are just trying to replicate what’s already been perfected by Glencairn,” including the wide bowl that tapers down to a narrow opening. Elliott also says the glasses work for all spirits, and not just whiskeys. “The shape allows the consumer to inspect the spirit thoroughly, as well as maximize the intensity of aromas being concentrated in the glass,” he says. “This allows the guest to detect even the most subtle aromatics.”