For us, drinking whiskey’s a personal experience, and we want our glassware to reflect that. Our whiskey glasses should have a story behind them, cater to our drinking style, or be something that starts a conversation when we have a few friends gathered around. That’s why we’re always on the lookout for the next great addition to our glass cabinet. Here are a few of our favorite whiskey glasses.
Glencairn Glass
For plenty of serious whiskey (or maybe whisky drinkers), this article doesn’t need to continue past this first glass. To be fair to those people, there’s a real argument to be made there too. Thousands of years of whiskey glass history and design culminated in the development of the Glencairn. It’s a beautiful glass too, with attractive curves and a stem that emphasizes function over form without sacrificing the latter, and the bulbed bottom turns into a lens that makes the golden whiskey look even better. You can’t make cocktails in it, but you don’t take out a Glencairn when you want to make a cocktail. $8
Clarity Tumbler
The Clarity Tumbler from Galway Crystal is an attractively off-kilter whiskey glass. It looks like the product of a few years of breeding between a standard tumbler, a stemless wine glass, a coupe, and a martini glass, and all of this is meant as a compliment. It’s small enough for a healthy neat whiskey, big enough for a strong cocktail or a few ice cubes, fancy enough for a high profile party, and casual enough for a casual night at home. They’re also remarkably clear glasses, which we say not because all the other glasses on this list aren’t, but because we were surprised. $17
Túath Irish Whiskey Glass
The Túath Whiskey Glass is the Irish answer to the Glencairn. Its design takes inspiration from the Irish landscape, with the Emerald Isle’s rugged western coastline represented in the asymmetry and sharp angles in the stem. There’s also an interesting lip on the glass, which we imagine helps keep the whiskey from spilling or running down the side of the glass. We’ve also heard this is the glass taking over official whiskey tastings in Ireland. Not that we’ve been to all of them. $17
Corkcicle Whiskey Wedge
There’s nothing wrong with whiskey on the rocks, except for maybe accidentally diluting your drink. A particularly interesting solution to that problem is this glass’s approach. The glass itself is nice enough and it comes with a custom ice mold that allows you to freeze a wedge of water in your glass. Ice with that much surface area means you can chill your favorite whiskey without running the risk of turning it into a glass of water with a bite. $18
Haywood Ceramic Whiskey Tumbler
Our main attraction to this glass is that it’s not made of glass at all. It’s a black ceramic cup with a matte finish, proving that glass isn’t the only thing that can make your whiskey drinking look sophisticated. The one downside is that you can’t see the color of your whiskey when you pour it in, though our response to our own criticism is to say we’ve drunk enough whiskey and enough different kinds of it to know approximately what color our drink is. We don’t need to inspect the color every time, especially when we’re drinking any of our personal favorites. You can also personalize these glasses with a monogrammed crest if you feel the need. $22
Sagaform Rocking Whiskey Tumbler
You’ve undoubtedly been to more than a few whiskey tastings, so you know one of a whiskey aficionado’s favorite things to do with whiskey is inspect the legs. Cheaply made whiskeys (because cheap doesn’t always mean bad) usually have fairly thin legs because they’ve diluted or cut with water or a different alcohol. But good whiskey should be more viscous thanks to the oils and sugars present in the drink. This whiskey glass from Sagaform allows you do evaluate the legs without excessively swirling the glass around like the guy you make fun of at the bar. Its bottom is slightly rounded, meaning it rocks back and forth when you put it down but will never spill the contents. $22
Single Malt Tasting Glass
It might be best to describe this glass as a stemless Glencairn. It uses the same design principles and is meant to contain the same drink, but it ditches the base and opts instead to sit flat on the table. Or on the coaster that comes with it. Either way, it doesn’t have a pedestal, making it perfect for guys who don’t trust themselves with glasses that have platforms. Or for guys who like how the Glencairn works but want something that looks a little different. $25
Casablanca Coupe Glasses
You can spend your whole life mixing cocktails and pouring them in tumblers. We won’t judge. But serving or being served a well-made Manhattan in a coupe glass is a special experience, so that’s what we’re suggesting you indulge in here. Don’t use it for straight whiskey, just keep it in mind when you’re whipping up some whiskey cocktails. It’s also a good way to show your guests that you take your entertainment and glassware seriously. $25
Ashcroft Twist Whiskey Glass
This is going to be our first entry of a handful of weird looking designs that work surprisingly well. The name also gives away exactly what’s different about this glass. It’s doing the twist. We’d imagine the design was inspired by what whiskey looks like when it first splashes in a glass, especially if it’s a hasty pour. It’s either that, or the glass is rifled for better accuracy on its journey to our mouths. Either way, we approve. They’re deceptively comfortable to hold, too, in case you were worried about those lines digging into your fingers. $26
Faceted Whiskey Glass
We have a hard time picking which version of this whiskey glass we like more. Obviously the facets are the coolest part, but it comes in two colors. The first is your standard clear glass, a solid and reliable choice. The second is a tinted glass that adds a little extra smoke appearance to your favorite peaty Scotch. But it’s not like it really matters which one we like more, because you know we own and use both. It’s more something that we think about when we first open the cabinet to pick a glass. $27
Old Fashioned Glass
There’s really no reason to mess with perfection, if you can find it. So while we can pick fancy glasses with unique features or interesting designs until our eyes fall out of our heads (and hands off our wrists), it’s completely understandable if you want to stick with the most reliable whiskey glass out there. The old fashioned glass with a circular top and bottom that holds enough for a man-sized pour. A few of these in your cabinet means no guest will ever go thirsty. $28
Luigi Bormioli Double Old Fashioned Glass
Before we used this glass, the idea of a truly comfortable whiskey glass hadn’t even crossed our minds. Let us try to describe what we mean. Most glasses we’ve used have been the standard circle or square bottomed variety. They fit in your hand and hold liquid, the two main requirements for a glass. But as soon as we picked up one of these, we knew we’d been shortchanging ourselves. These glasses have ovular bases, with an elongated base that fits perfectly in your hand. It’s the perfect mix between an eye catchingly different design and a innovative function. $35
Grip Whiskey Glass
The Grip whiskey glass fulfills a similar role, though not as well, in our opinion. Still, it’s a marginal difference at best. It has an elongated base too, though with more rectangular features instead of the smooth single oval of our previous picks. The shape fits in your hand more readily and there are one-size-fits-all finger grooves shaped into the glass, meaning if you drop this glass, you really can’t blame the manufacturer. $39
Norlan Whiskey Glass
The Norlan Glass is a glass for people who pay attention to things like temperature, aeration, and flow when they pour their whiskey. They’re the people who get (almost) irrationally upset if you try to drink whiskey out of a plastic cup, even if you’re at a barbecue or a beer garden. We take our hats off to those guys though, because they’re the ones who make sure distillers can’t pass cheap crap off to the rest of us. We might as well support their decision to get fancy glassware too. $48
The Duo Glass
When you buy a Duo Glass, you’re getting a lot for your money. It has double insulation to keep your whiskey at your preferred temperature, lines that indicate perfect measures and pours for mixing cocktails inside the glass itself, and spherical silicone ice molds made specifically for the Duo Glass. Plus, it looks good, unlike most drink products that pack this much into a glass or shaker. On the selfish side, this would be the glass we’d use to share our best whiskey, because it’s the one we could measure a pour for and not look cheap doing it. $48
Matterhorn Glasses
You’d think buying these glasses would mean you’d have go through some kind of proving process. Climb the mountain, see the mountain, at least visit Switzerland. But no, anyone can buy them. Good thing too, because these are definitely among the coolest tumblers we’ve ever owned. They appeal to the whiskey drinker and aspiring mountaineer in all of us, the first of which is much easier to indulge than the second. Not that we don’t want to climb some mountains, but it’s fifty bucks for a set of these and a couple hundred for a trip to Switzerland. It’s about prioritizing short and long term goals. $50
Norlan Whiskey Glass Black Edition
We talked about the Norlan glass already, so take everything good we said about it up there and turn it black. Actually, come to think of it, this glass combines what we like about the Norlan and what we like about the ceramic cup we talked about earlier, then stacking an infinity mirror on top. An infinity mirror because the inside of the black finish is also a reflective surface, bouncing your whiskey’s gold or amber color around so it fills the entire inside of the glass. It doesn’t do anything for the taste of the whiskey, but it sure does look cool. $58
Godinger Whiskey Decanter Globe Set
We’re including the decanter with these whiskey glasses because, while the glasses are cool on their own, the decanter is what really makes the whole purchase worth it. Sure, putting your whiskey in a globe might be a little on the nose, especially if you’re the kind of guy who samples as much whiskey from as many different places as possible, but being on the nose can sometimes be a good thing. If whiskey’s really an international drink now, why not let your glassware show that off? $60
Whiskey Glass with Personalized Leather Wrap
Personalized leather is always a tasteful choice for a man, so if you’re on the lookout for something to spoil your groomsmen with, bestow upon your dad or brother, or stumped for your SO’s birthday, keep these in mind. You can get a name, initial, and year put on the leather wrap, making it perfect to mark an occasion, and the leather wrap’s removable, meaning you’re not giving your friends a chore whenever they need to wash it. Simply remove the wrap and put it in the dishwasher. $70
Irish Oak Whiskey Tumbler
Like the ceramic glasses before, the thing that pulls us toward this whiskey cup is that it’s not made of glass. These are whiskey tumblers carved by Joe Laird, a woodturner in Co. Meath, Ireland. His website gallery is full of beautifully crafted pieces and he’s willing to do commissioned work, but we’ll stand by his standard whiskey tumbler. It’s made of Irish oak, a solid tree with an extensive historical and mythological significance in Irish culture, if that’s part of what you use to evaluate your drinkware. If it’s not, you’re still getting a high quality tumbler for your favorite Irish whiskey. $144
