The unusual shape can make it more tricky to hold and drink from it though. This is another good type of glass for whisky beginners, as it lets you learn to really appreciate the good tastes and scents from whisky without the harsher ethanol. The shape and design was refined until it became perfectly engineered to push the harsher scents from the alcohol part of whisky away from the nose while leaving scents that are easier to appreciate. The shape seemed weird but somehow, someone eventually decided it reminded them of a more exaggerated shape of other whisky glasses-like the Glencairn glass-and tried it out. It was originally a design that came from an error by a glass blower who was trying to make something else. The name for the NEAT glass is actually an acronym that stands for “Naturally Engineered Aroma Technology”. If you’ve seen people in ads or movies drinking whisky with ice, it was more than likely in a tumbler glass. You just pour in your whisky, maybe drop in some ice, and drink away (responsibly of course). For beginner whisky drinkers, it is the simplest glass to use to get started drinking whisky, so you can learn to start appreciating the tastes. The design is very simple, with the mouth of the glass more or less the same width as the body. The whisky tumbler glass is the classic and the most common. Here is a quick guide to the types of whisky glasses and how they make a difference.

They can actually affect the smell and taste of the whisky, and therefore the overall experience when you drink it. This is very similar to how wine glasses come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with each type working better for different kinds of wine.

Whisky glasses come in a variety of shapes and sizes, each with specific purposes and advantages when you are drinking whisky. (Credit: Benjamin Thompson/Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0)

Types of whiskey glasses