Most Martini conversations are centered around the liquid itself. Vodka or gin? Shaken or stirred? Do you like it icy, filthy, bone dry, or garnished with a twist?
But one could argue that the vessel your drink ends up in is equally important. If your Martini is served in the wrong glass, it is likely to diminish the drinking experience.
Some drinkers prefer the angular, V-shaped Martini glass, while others think its aesthetics are outdated and kitschy, reminiscent of bad disco drinks. Some Martini fans prefer the shallow, bowl-shaped coupe, while others find the glass exaggerates the aromas and alcohol. Some love the Nick & Nora glass, while others think it’s just too small for a Martini.
So, what are the key differences between these stemmed cocktail glasses? And which one is right for your next 50/50, Reverse Martini, or Bijou? Here’s everything you need to know when comparing the three.
The Coupe Glass
While the coupe glass is arguably one of the most popular and important glasses in the cocktail world, the vessel first belonged to the wine crowd.
Records track the coupe glass to the court of King Louis the XIV, who sipped Champagne from a coupe at almost every meal. In those days, Champagne wasn’t something to be savored. It was a drink to be sipped quickly or slammed back like a shot. Party-goers would down the drink in one go and flip the glass to allow the sediment to drain before they refilled their glass.
Coupe glasses were particularly popular during Prohibition. The design was chic and the small capacity made it easy to swiftly finish one’s drink during a raid.
COUPE GLASS FAST FACTS
Legend says the round shape is modeled after Marie Antoinette’s breast (untrue!)
Early coupe glasses would sit on a base instead of a stem. To drink, you’d lift it off the base
Comes in a variety of styles, designs, and capacities
Coupes were popular during Prohibition, as you could finish your drink quickly during a raid
Often used in Champagne towers because of the shorter, sturdy stem and stackable wide bowls
In the 1950s, the flute was introduced to wine lovers, who realized the tall, elongated shape would dissipate bubbles less quickly. Coupes fell out of favor with wine drinkers, while Martinis were growing in popularity. Bartenders started serving Flips, Martinis, and other shaken drinks in the glass.
These days, coupe glasses come in all forms, but most styles have a shallow, round shaped bowl and sit on a long stem. Some are as small as five ounces while others are double that capacity. The larger capacity makes the glass versatile enough to serve a wide variety of drinks, from sours to 50/50 Martinis and any other cocktail served up.
Older, vintage-style coupes often have a shorter stem and detailing like cut crystal or engraving. These glasses are durable, chip-resistant, and stack easily—think Champagne (or Martini) towers. Modern options tend to employ wine glassmaking techniques—delicate crystal, hand-blown bowls, and thin, statuesque stems.
Beyond Martinis, coupes are versatile vessels for any shaken or stirred drink served up. For drinks with egg white (or aquafaba), the shape of the coupe showcases the fluffy layers of foam, and the wider bowl highlights more nuanced aromas.
The V-Shaped Martini Glass
The V-shaped Martini glass is most often recognized as a byproduct of the 1980s and ’90s, a popular vessel for shrimp cocktails, Cosmos, Lychee Martinis, Appletinis, and other neon-hued disco drinks. However, the glass predates the ’Tini explosion by decades.
The V-shaped glass first debuted in Paris at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts. The angular shape nodded to Art Deco principles.
When the glass was first invented, people tended to use it for Champagne rather than cocktails. But in the 1960s, James Bond sipped his Martini out of a V-shaped glass and introduced a whole new look and style for the beloved cocktail.
V-SHAPED MARTINI GLASS FAST FACTS
Introduced at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris
Angular and sharp, a nod to Art Deco design principles
Larger capacity with a larger surface area, providing more aromatics
Nostalgic design, most often associated with the 1980s and ’90s
Criticized for being inefficient and spilling easily
V-shaped Martini glasses tend to have a larger capacity, allowing for colorful, shaken drinks to shine and more real estate for garnish options—go ahead and stick three, four, or five olives or pickled onions on that cocktail pick.
The V-shaped glass is often criticized as an inefficient vessel, as the frail, outward design causes liquid to slosh in the glass as it moves, and makes it prone to spillage. In the ’80s and ’90s, the glasses were often oversized and unruly, causing drinks to become warm before the drinker could get to the last sip. Over time, this style of glassware fell out of favor as coupes and Nick & Noras became the norm.
These days, V-shaped glasses are tiptoeing back into fashion. Martiny’s in New York City serves its Martinis in a small V-shaped glass, as does Ryan Chetiyawardana’s Silver Lyan. (Notably, these glasses are narrower than standard V-shaped glasses.) More petite V-shaped glasses are often served with a sidecar-on-ice presentation.
Nick & Nora Glass
The name Nick & Nora is a nod to the fictional crime-fighting couple Nick and Nora Charles, who often solved capers over glasses of icy Martinis in the 1934 flick The Thin Man. We can thank legendary bartender Dale DeGroff for the glass’s popularity. In the late 1980s, when working at The Rainbow Room, he flipped through a catalog from an old-school glassware manufacturer and ordered glasses that reminded him of the tiny coupes shown in the film, nicknaming them Nick & Noras.
NICK & NORA GLASS FAST FACTS
Bell-shaped
Typically five to six-ounce capacity
Smaller stature
Designed to avoid spillage
Named for the fictional crime-fighting couple Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man movies
The name stuck, and today the Nick & Nora glass is beloved for its timeless, elegant design. The arched, petite glass is ideal for serving stirred or shaken sours. Typically, these glasses are five ounces in volume (ideal for three-ounce and four-ounce recipes) and are smartly designed to avoid spillage. The bowl curves outwards then up, allowing you to walk around with a glass in hand without your drink sloshing over the rim. Bartenders also prefer the glass because it keeps the drink cooler for longer—there’s less surface area so less of the drink is exposed to air, keeping it cool for longer.
These glasses pair well with anything in the Martini family such as the Vesper, Bamboo, or Alaska, or other stirred, spirit-forward drinks. The small capacity perfectly fits a three-ounce Martini with a sufficient washline, and the thinner mouth allows for accurate delivery of alcohol to the mid-palate, helping to build aromas without the alcohol content being overwhelming. Alternatively, the size of the glass makes them well-suited to sours or citrus-driven shaken cocktails, like Last Words or Corpse Revivers.
