What’s wrong with the right glass?

It happened again last night. I ordered a glass of pretty good wine in a nice restaurant which served us a really good meal. But my wine came in a glass just big enough for the quantity of wine which I’d ordered (250ml as it happens). So no scope for swirling and no opportunity for a little light bouquet sniffing.

But it’s true. What you drink out of influences the pleasure you get from what you’re drinking.

I remember a hundred years ago, or at least several decades, when I was growing up in my grandfather’s house, tea on Sundays was always a little special so the best bone china came out. Even at that age I reckoned that tea tasted better from such cups.

It depends on the tea of course and why you’re drinking it. If it’s builders tea and it’s there to slake a thirst and/or fuel the body a mug will do fine. But any other tea at any other time really needs a teacup. Not necessarily best bone china but at least a cup with a saucer and nothing which might describe itself as earthenware or similar.

The same goes for coffee but if you must drink instant coffee then a mug’s OK. Anything else should involve a coffee cup please. But it doesn’t have to be, in fact I’d suggest it shouldn’t be, fine china. Earthenware may be just OK for a good coffee. That also means that the ridiculous larger sizes beloved by Starbucks which are served in mugs really shouldn’t be on offer. They’re bad for your heart anyway. I’m also inclined to say that you shouldn’t serve coffee in glasses except Irish and other alcoholic coffees of course.

This should mean that ‘paper cups’ are a no go area. However I’ve got to accept that sometimes you need a coffee and the meeting you’re going to either won’t provide any or what it does provide is undrinkable. So it is when I go to meetings in Cambourne when the only option for a decent coffee is a Costa in a paper cup from Caxton Gibbett. It’s a compromise but it works.

Back to wine: I read recently that you should pay as much for the glass as you do for the wine you’re drinking. That means that if it’s cheap vin rouge a tooth mug is fine. I know I’ve been there and I agree. However if it’s half way decent wine, and the wine I had last night was, then your standard industrial grade produced in the millions pub glass is not good enough. And certainly not for a 4 star hotel. Some places do it right: elegant stemmed glassware, smaller measures and lots of posing opportunities for the drinker.

When I was out buying a couple of new wine glasses recently I found that you should now be grape specific when you choose a wine glass. I think that goes a little too far.

Finally: I don’t drink much beer and generally only German Pils or similar. For that I’ll always choose long glass. Again I think it enhances the flavour. My local, the Red Lion in Histon, serves a wide range of beers from different countries and each one has its own glass. That seems appropriate. However there are still some beers which just seem to go with a tooth mug. They somehow evoke the experience of Hobson’s Choice when you were somewhere with low expectations and thankful for what you’d got.

So: back to last night. If you’re the sort of place which has starched white table cloths, sells steaks at £25 or so, offers a range of decent wines and employs really good and knowledgeable staff don’t let your self down by deploying the wrong glasses.