First know about whiskey, friends who have experience in tasting may tell you: different styles of whiskey should be paired with different cups of .
This is true in itself. Just like wine, different raw materials and crafts bring different styles, and styles often need to be presented in a specific wine glass.
There are many types of wine glasses, which many people know about
, but if you only look at the difference between whiskey glasses from a technical perspective, it will be a bit superficial. The changes in whiskey glasses also reflect the person holding the glasses. It not only forms a culture, but also the carrier of wine culture history .
Europeans also used to "drink big bowls"
Whisky's hometown Scotland is a place of distillation in Europe. The process of distilling winemaking took seven or eight hundred years. Finally, was introduced to Scotland from its birthplace Middle East through Italy in the 15th century, so the prototype of whisky was founded. But like the rest of the world, the craft of spirits is out of control once it is introduced. Not long after, the Scots formed this habit of hospitality: each had to worship a round of whiskey when welcoming and seeing off guests, just like in our country, we used to worship tea when welcoming and seeing off guests. The popular wine glasses at this time were called "quaich" - a cup in the literal sense in Scotch.
But quaich is more like a bowl of than a cup. Although Europeans have used red wine glasses and beer glasses since ancient times, at least in Scotland, where the folk customs are strong, people still had a period of drinking like the heroes of Liangshan. Even drinking whiskey in large bowls was a symbol of privilege at that time - strong liquor was considered a luxury consumption at that time, and the working people could only drink beer and cheap wine . Quaich is designed to have handles on both sides, which may be considered aristocratic socializing. In this way, is suitable for handing on both hands, and when handing the cup with one hand, the other party can naturally use their usual hands to pick up .
Of course, it can also be a simple big bowl of drinking
Many British celebrities have used quaich in history, , which includes the defeat of Napoleon's Duke of Wellington , and he found someone to use the wood of a tree that survived on the battlefield of Waterloo to make a commemorative version. To this day, there are still people who respect the aristocratic style once represented by quaich - The elite association of Scotch whisky industry and culture is called "The Keepers of the Quaich". Even the symbol of the association is a huge metal quaich.
This association can be said to be the Masonic community of whisky
Quaich was once prominent, but with the industrial revolution, whiskey became more and more a kind of consumption of the people. In the industrial age, the bar of is obviously not suitable for holding a large bowl like the medieval military aristocrats...
In the industrial age, men just want to go straight to
flat bottom, straight edge, and handleless. This is the most common image of whiskey cups - tumbler.
Sometimes you may hear people talking about "wide mouth cup", "straight mouth cup", and "locket cup", but in fact, only needs to meet the three points of flat bottom (or hollow flat bottom), straight edge, and handleless, even tumbler. The popularity of this kind of cup began in the bar in the late 19th century. At that time, the price of ordinary whiskey was already very affordable. A large number of working-class men had a pastime after working for a day, and sat in the bar, holding a glass of whiskey or beer in their hands, which was a few words to talk about what others had.
000 bar
Tumbler design in the late 19th century is also designed to facilitate ordinary people. Because there is no longer the need to toast as carefully as the medieval aristocrats, the straight-sided deep cup that is easy to hold with one hand replaces the quaich, which is more suitable for holding with both hands. Tumbler spread all over the world with the expansion of Europe and the United States. The image of cigar stuffing into the mouth and tumbler letting go has become a symbol of capitalism . Another feature of
Tumbler is that it is very suitable for ice cubes (the saying of rock cups comes from Americans calling the ice cubes added to wine rock) . When drinking whiskey, in order to prevent the ice from melting too quickly and affecting the taste, you often choose to add large ice cubes. Tumbler's flat bottom and wide mouth fit this demand well.In recent years, some manufacturers have also produced tumblers with curved side walls or pointed inner bottoms (the so-called ice hockey cups). The reason is actually to adapt to the spherical ice cubes that are more conducive to the taste. The popularity of
Tumbler is accompanied by the working class's popular interpretation of whiskey. But just like the trend of beer will shift from tambra to craft, more and more interested people will pay attention to the taste of whiskey details , which has given birth to a new type of cup designed specifically for whiskey taste.
Taste of the quality era in life
Taste of the details of high-quality whiskey has actually been a long time ago. But in the past, there were very few people who played this, and we just used cups of other wines to make do with it. For example, the high-foot smelling cups and cognac ( brandy ) cups that are often used now.
high-foot smelling cup (nosing glass/stempt copyright) was originally used for wine tasting
Cognac cup is used for brandy and port wine
However, as single malt whiskey gradually became popular since the 1980s, tasting whiskey has become more and more a lifestyle that people are willing to try. Some interested manufacturers have made special whiskey tasting cups under the voice of enthusiasts. The representative varieties of
Whiskey tasting cups are the 1994 Del Vinum (Riedel, left) and the 2001 Glencairn (right) tasting cup. Riddle Vinum's design focuses more on the taste, and the flaring is used to expand the first contact between the tongue and the wine; while the Grand Cain Cup adopts the belly-expanding design of wine and brandy cup , paying more attention to the gathering of aromas.
Nowadays, professional ratings and competitions are mostly used in the Gran Cain Cup and the Tall Scent Cup , while Riddle Vinum has a good reputation among the enthusiast group. But no matter which one, the current whiskey style is very different from the quaich era when drinking and seeing off guests, and behind this is the change in people's lifestyle.
brainstorm or casual? This is actually not a problem. The development of the whiskey cup has not stopped at Grancain. However, in recent years, the innovation of 's whiskey cup is more of a brain-thinking product backed by technology. For example, NEAT "Spray Towel Cup" and Norlan Compound Cup . Among them, the NEAT Cup is said to combine the advantages of the Grancain and Riddle, and uses computer-aided design to achieve optimal flavor treatment.
is just a NEAT cup with a weird appearance, very much like the old-fashioned spittoon
Nolan compound cup is said to have also been verified by computer-aided design, and the inner liner is a combination of Gran Kane and Riddle. However, the real interesting thing about is the double-layer structure - the outside is a mutant Tumbler with a very good feel, the inside is an optimized scented cup, and the middle is vacuumed to prevent the temperature of the hand and the ice in the wine from affecting each other. Some connoisseurs have highly praised this glass, considering it an excellent example of the combination of aesthetics and performance.
For ordinary people at present, the choice of which cup to use for whiskey is unprecedentedly rich. Whether you are entertaining guests, savoring, pursuing concepts or simply wanting to drink, there are suitable cups to correspond to . There are quaich in high-end and old-school social networking, there are various Tunblers for personal drinking, and there are various scented cups for careful savoring. If you pursue the ultimate and innovation, there are innovative cups such as Nolan. Whenever I think of these, I feel that 400 years of whiskey and wine glass have not been in vain.
Whiskey Cup has experienced so much development and innovation, but the most important progress is to make different people and different lifestyles have the right choice. When we use different mentalities, use different but appropriate cups to hold up the same wine, this is probably the world of whiskey lovers.
