You might be at your house, or at a friends house and you've decided you'd like a drink, or maybe your good friend offered you one. So you've chosen your drink, maybe in a nice wine, or a beer, and you standing in front of a bar or cabinet and you're just staring at a whole bunch of clean glasses. Some are short, tall, wide, and skinny. Some have stems and some don't. Oh no, what do you do? Do you grab a random one, or do you pull out this handy article so you can look smart and savvy, even if you're by yourself.

Let's start with the wine because those can be confusing.

RED WINE

So the shape of these kinds of glasses can vary but they tend to be full bodied or bowl shaped. This allows for more surface area and for more aroma to be released. This sounds like a small insignificant part of drinking wine, but think about it, the smell is half the sip when drinking red wine.

WHITE WINE and Rose (pink)

So these glasses tend to be slender, like midway between a red wine glass and a champagne glass (don't worry class that will be covered later). Fun fact: this glass shape is also called a tulip-shape glassware, sounds pretty fancy right? Usually, white wine is served chilled and the smaller the glass the colder it can stay. Also, you can hold the glass by the stem so you don't warm the wine with your hands.

CHAMPAGNE

This one looks like a white wine glass but it's thinner. Because it's thinner it can retain its trademark carbonation. If you put it in a red or white wine glass you might be left with a flat drink. It's also designed to show off all those bubbles.

STEMLESS GLASSES

These are kind of a new thing and there aren't many rules that go with them. One good thing is that you don't have to worry about the stem breaking off and one bad thing is that you could heat up a white or rose because you can't hold a stemless glass by its stem now can you.

Ok so enough about wine, let's move on to beer. There are more types of beer glasses then wine glasses and choosing the wrong one won't have as much effect on your experience.

AMERICAN PINT

These are pretty simple glass that widens at the top and is sometimes called a shaker. It's typically meant for lagers or brown ales. But because it tends to be one of less expensive to make it tends to be a staple in bars.

IMPERIAL PINT

These are the ones that look like the American pint but are a bit rounder. The British version looks like an American pint that has a speed bump near the top. These are recommended for English ales.

From left to right:

imperial pint, British imperial pint, and an American pint because I couldn't find a picture with just to two first ones.

PILSNER

This one is pretty good for pilsners (surprise, surprise), and other German beers. It's the specific shape that it is because it's good for the carbonation and leaves room for foam at the top. There are several shapes that fall under the pilsner name, but this is the most popular.

WHEAT BEER

This one looks pretty similar to the pilsner glass it's just a bit thinner that allows for even more room for foam and aid the aromas.

SNIFTER

No, this is not a creature from the Harry Potter movie, Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them. This beer glass has a stem, wide base, and narrow top. The wide bottom is perfect for swirling, which not only entertaining and makes you look fancy, it also helps release the aromas and the narrow top traps them there. You can also cup the bowl of the glass and allow your hand to warm the beer. This one is suggested for strong ales, barley wines, and is also nice for brandy.

MUGS or STIENS

Ok, these are for people who want to look awesome. No judging, we've all done it with water or coke at some point. It's recommended for anything with deep flavors as well as red ales, lagers, porters, or stouts. Also, the thick glass helps insulate your drink and the handle makes it easy to carry without warming it.

So there are so many more beer glasses, and it would take a lifetime to go through all of them. But those are the basics.

Ok now we move onto the hard stuff. And by that I mean liquor.

MARTIN

So this is the one that looks like a triangle. At first, it can be hard not to spill but you'll get the hang of it. Some say the shape help the ingredients stop separating, some say the stem helps the temperature stay constant, but there's just something about the shape of that class....

HIGHBALL

These are thin glasses with no stems and are tended to be used for carbonated cocktails. It's like that so less of the liquid is exposed to the air so the carbonation can't get away as fast.

LOWBALL

These are good for drinks with high alcohol content like scotch or brandy because they're smaller and shorter. It helps to regulate how much is put in and anyway you drink it over a longer period of time anyway.

So there you go, poor your drink and go back to the conversation or binge watching whatever Netflix show's on pause on your computer. Have a good time and most importantly enjoy responsibly.