What’s the Distinction Between a Rocks Glass and an Outdated Customary Glass?

On paper, the rocks and the Outdated Customary glass serve related functions. Each are brief glasses meant for holding neat pours, a spirit with an ice dice or two, or cocktails corresponding to a Sazerac and, sure, an Outdated Customary.

Each glasses carry out this job effectively, although there are a couple of key variations between the 2. The most important distinction is the scale: The Outdated Customary glass is smaller, sized to carry a single Outdated Customary with a big dice of ice or smaller cubes. The rocks glass (or double Outdated Customary glass) gives a bigger capability—preferrred for a much bigger blended drinks or these with a beneficiant quantity of ice.

What else defines these two glasses? That can assist you discover which glassware is correct to your pour, we explored the slight variations and in contrast the highest manufacturers of each types.

The Outdated Customary Glass

The Outdated Customary is an iconic drink, beloved by literary icons and bartenders alike. There have been three drinks culinary legend James Beard swore by: a Dry Martini, a dry Daiquiri, and “an Outdated Customary with none refuse in the way in which of fruit.” 

Early whiskey drinks weren’t served within the Outdated Customary glass as we all know it immediately, nonetheless. Within the seventeenth and 18th centuries, whiskey glasses have been shallow, rounded silver or picket glasses referred to as quaichs.

The rounded backside caught round by way of the 18th century, and by then, glasses have been often called tumblers. Legend has it that the glasses earned this title as a result of they’d tumble over and break in the event you set them down.

In 1862, Jerry Thomas wrote in his bartender’s information that the Whiskey Cocktail (the sooner iteration of the Outdated Customary) was shaken over superb ice and strained right into a “fancy” pink wine glass.

At present’s Outdated Customary glass seems to be a little bit totally different. It holds between six to eight ounces, or a two-ounce pour of whiskey plus ice. An Outdated Customary glass includes a low profile, a large diameter, a thick base, and a flat backside, excellent for muddling and huge sufficient to carry a handful of small cubes or one good, plump rock.

Outdated Customary glasses are designed for the drink to be constructed immediately in them. Within the case of an Outdated Customary, which means you’ll add sugar, bitters, a splash of water, and citrus peel to the glass, muddle till the sugar is dissolved, add ice and whiskey, and stir till dilution is achieved. Some different stirred and spirit-forward cocktails to make on this fashion of glass are a Sazerac, a Vieux Carré, and a Negroni.

The Rocks Glass

Though Outdated Customary, rocks, and lowball glasses are sometimes marketed as the identical factor, there are slight nuances that separate Outdated Customary glasses from rocks glasses. The first distinction is the scale: Because the title implies, Outdated Customary glasses are sized to carry precisely one Outdated Customary.

Rocks glasses range extra in measurement and are historically seven ounces or bigger. Outdated Customary glasses have been usually extra well-liked earlier than Kold-Draft and large-format ice trended, however now that enormous, slick, hand-cut ice has grow to be a fixture of bars, bigger rocks glasses have stepped into play.

The dimensions makes rocks glasses extra versatile. With almost double the capability of an Outdated Customary glass, this glass is good for drinks which have the next proportion of non-alcoholic mixers. You may make an Outdated Customary or go for any variety of different cocktails which have a number of components corresponding to a Penicillin or the Petronio from Alquímico, our International Highlight Winner 2023.

In case you’re on the fence about which glass to purchase, search for a rocks glass. There’s no have to personal each glasses, and the rocks glass pulls double responsibility for Outdated Fashioneds and a variety of different drinks. Bonus: the Yarai Rocks Glass from Cocktail Kingdom doubles as an impromptu mixing glass.