Eight Glasses Your At-Home Bar MUST Have

There are specific glasses that every at-home bar needs to feel complete. However, many people don't know where to start with the wide selection of options available. How do you distinguish between what's necessary and what's excessive?

The first step is to learn more about what the purpose of each glass is. From there, you can craft your essential list of glasses for your perfect bar.

For over over 50 years, Dean Supply has been a leader in the food industry, providing equipment, decorations, janitorial supplies and other much-needed items to restaurants, bars and private residential homes–all at highly competitive prices.

Glasses serve a bigger purpose than just holding liquids, say the experts at Dean Supply. By understanding why some glasses do what they do, you can actually improve the quality of your drink.

• Wine Glasses

Don't put red wine in a white wine glass. You should have both because:

Red wine glasses, with their rounder and broader structure, are meant to help increase the rate of oxidation, which is vital for red wines to bring out the complexity of flavor.

White wine glasses are slightly less rounded and have a smaller brim, allowing for the rate of oxidation, allowing for a smaller surface, and hence, a reduced rate of oxidation.

2. Rocks Glasses

A rocks glass is a multipurpose glass: you can use to serve any number of liquors on the rocks, or you can use it to pour yourself an Old Fashioned. These glasses are wide in their brim, and they carry thick bases. This means that any non-liquid ingredients that may be going into your drink can be muddled prior to you pouring in any liquids.

3. Shot Glasses

Shot glasses are crucial for any bar solely because of their versatility. They can be used to drink shots of any of your favorite liquors, sip on your oldest whiskey, or even to measure out alcohol for a cocktail. These typically come in sizes from one ounce to two and a half ounces.

4. Champagne Flutes

These are staple glasses that every at-home bar needs. Their tall and narrow shape is tailored to hold champagne by reducing the amount of oxygen and surface area, thereby retaining the flavor and aroma of the drink as well as the texture of the bubbles.

5. Beer Glasses

Just as there are different types of glasses for wines, there are also different types of glasses for beers. These each accentuate the flavor of their particular beverage.

• Pilsner Glass: Pilsner glasses are usually tapered and slender, which allows the color to be revealed as well as the carbonation. Additionally, the breadth of the top of the glass allows the head, or frothy foam, to be maintained.
• Traditional Pint Glass: Pint glasses can vary, but they are typically conical in shape. There is a type of glass called "nonic glasses" which bulge out a few inches from the top and are meant to improve grip. Pint glasses also vary in size according to the country in which they are produced.
• Belgian Beer Glass: These glasses generally have a thick stem with a bowl sitting atop it. They are commonly known as goblets or chalices, depending on the thickness of the walls. Chalices are usually thicker than goblets and, as such, are also heavier. An example of this is the Libbey 3817 10 Oz Belgian Beer Glass carried by Dean Supply.

6. Cocktail Glasses

• Martini: These glasses have been around for decades, and they have changed very little since their inception. They are long-stemmed glasses with an inverted conical bowl. The long stem is meant to keep the drink chilled without ice, as the user does not have to touch the bowl when drinking it.
• Margarita: These are similar to the martini glass, but the bowl is much more rounded. However, both glasses share wide brims made for the user to take in the aroma of the drink. A modern phenomenon is the advent of oversized or giant margarita glasses such as the Libbey 3407 Super Schooner, which can hold 53 ounces of margarita.
• Hurricane: This glass is named after the Hurricane drink, served initially at Pat O'Brien's in New Orleans. It has a shorter stem than a margarita glass and a tall, narrow bowl. The Hurricane glass can be used to serve a variety of other tropical cocktails.

Complete Your Dream Bar

There is no time like the present to get your bar in order, especially now that you've completed our short course in "bar glasses 101" by Dean Supply!!

So here's cheers to you!