There’s not much you can do though: You’re not going to ask for a smaller drink (I assume), and if you ask them to pour it into a wine glass you’re going to spend minutes explaining what you want and why, and then suffering the stares of the rest of the bar. It’s a sad statement about our drinking world today.

A terrific bar I went to in Seattle, Vessel, has just switched over their entire collection of glassware to antique glasses. So two patrons may not get the same glass, but they’ll each get an awesome glass that’s perfect to drink from and that suits their drink.

I do think that a modest investment in audio – a wireless mic – will make big difference. I find poor audio a distraction. We humans have good hearing, it is pretty amazing that many people can tell the difference between audio sampled at 44, 22 and 11 kHz, yet can hardly tell video at 30, 20 or 15 fps).

Large ones also make great serving dishes for a variety of desserts.

That being said, I couldn’t disagree more about your opinion on martini glasses. Yeah, if you fill it to the rim it’s impossible to drink from. Duh! A properly filled martini glass is about half full, so the liquid is about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up to the rim. Even so the glass is a bit top heavy and unstable, true. But it has a charm and propriety to it that’s part of the drink. Cocktail time is a ritual and its furnishings must be properly acknowledged.

It doesn’t help that you used a tacky glass with a novelty crooked stem.

By the way, the straight sided V shape is properly speaking a martini glass. A cocktail glass is traditionally slightly bowl-shaped, although you almost never see one anywhere anymore. Overpriced-manufacturer Riedell has one roughly the shape I’m thinking, see http://www.amazon.com/Riedel-Extreme-Martini-Cocktail-Glasses/dp/B000069CEO

One of the best cocktails I was ever served was at the Mercer Kitchen in New York. The glass there was slightly curved, but in the opposite direction from a bowl, making for a glass that got shallower to the top. Beautiful shape, almost impossible to drink from.

But really: don’t fill it to the rim. Most martini glasses are 7oz and up – you have to search a bit to find ones as small as 5oz. Make your drinks 4oz at a time and you’ll be happier for it. They’ll be icy from start to finish, and you won’t spill a drop until at least your 5th cocktail.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around that highball glass suggestion. Assuming you’re not throwing ice cubes into the glass, wouldn’t a highball glass either involve a LOT of gin or a lot of tilting your head backwards?

“The whole point is to be sipped?” Well the problem is carrying it (especially by the stem) until you’ve sipped the first inch away because the sides are not made in any way to keep liquid from rolling out, in fact encourage it. Combine that with drinks numbered 2,3, and 4 and there will be liquid somewhere it doesn’t belong. I suppose some people have developed through extensive training good martini carrying skills. I haven’t so I’ll take the wine glass (or coffee mug).

-Doug