The brandy glass has a wide base and narrow top to concentrate the fragrance of the brandy. Brandy was distilled from wine in the 12th century and became popular in the 14th century. The glass was likely invented in the 16th century and can also be used for mixed drinks or as a decoration.
Cocktail glass is a cocktail glass with approximately 50ml of liquid when filled to the brim. The glass is wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, to concentrate the “nose” or fragrance of the brandy. A brandy schnapps glass has a short stem and a wide base, which gives it a characteristic shape. The large bowl of the glass houses the hand, which warms the brandy for drinking.
Brandy entered Western culture sometime in the 12th century, probably. It’s a distilled wine and sounds like something a vintner did as an experiment. Distilling the wine and aging it in wooden barrels seems counterintuitive, but it worked in this case. Merchants discovered that wine would last much longer this way and that water could be added to brandy when it was drunk. Adding water never caught on, though. People liked the more concentrated taste of brandewijn – Dutch for “fire wine” – and the distilled version became very popular around the 14th century.
As glassmaking became more popular in the 16th century, glassblowers were always looking for other designs to sell, and the cobbler probably originated in that era. “Snifter,” incidentally, is British colloquialism for a small amount of alcohol in a glass. When drunk “properly”, only a small amount of brandy is poured into the brandy glass and is held in the hand so that the brandy warms from the warmth of the hand.
A brandy glass can also be used to serve elaborate mixed drinks, recipes for which are available online. Most crystal makers sell a version of the brandy glass, large or small, and are also sold by standard glassware makers. A brandy glass can be purchased individually or in sets, in various sizes, and can also be used as a decoration or as a vase.
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