Nick & Nora glasses

Sizes here run from 14 to around 20 centilitres, and you notice the difference straight away. A classic stirred cocktail comes to about nine centilitres once strained, melted ice included. In a 14 or 15 cl bowl that fills the glass to just below the rim, exactly as it should. Go for 19.8 cl and you deliberately keep room for a larger serve or for a garnish that needs space.

Pay attention to the stem and the foot as well. A long stem keeps your fingers well away from the bowl, which is the whole point of a cocktail served without ice. A wide foot keeps the glass steady on a tray. On a pulled stem the join between stem and bowl is formed from a single piece of glass and is therefore stronger than on an applied stem, which you can recognise by a small seam at the transition.

Anything you stir and serve without ice belongs in this glass. A dry martini, a manhattan, a stirred variation with vermouth: chill the glass first for five minutes in the freezer or with iced water, tip that away, and only then strain into it. It makes a noticeable difference to how long the cocktail stays cold.

Do not fill to the rim. Leaving half a centimetre is not stinginess but practicality, because you need to be able to hand the glass over without it running down your hand. The same goes for the garnish. A thin strip of lemon peel or a single olive fits, a skewer with three olives and a sprig of rosemary does not. The nick & nora is a glass for the drink and not for the decoration, and that is exactly why bars find it so practical.

Most nick & noras are made from lead-free crystal glass. That material is clearer and thinner than ordinary glass, which makes the bowl feel light, but it also makes the rim more vulnerable. Brands such as Spiegelau and Zwiesel Glas reheat the rim once more after shaping, so that it chips less easily.

Nearly all of them are dishwasher safe, but place the glasses apart from one another in the basket. Stems knocking together during the spin cycle are the main cause of breakage, not the washing itself. Store them upright in the cupboard, bowl up rather than upside down on the rim, and leave some space between the bowls.

If you want a larger glass for the same cocktails, look at the martini glasses with their wide V, or at the champagne coupe glasses, which are flatter and release more aroma. If you mainly use the bowl for coffee cocktails, take a look at the espresso martini glasses, and the complete overview by shape is under cocktail glasses. If you are after the recipe rather than the glass, the dry martini page gives the gin to vermouth ratio and the manhattan page covers the build with rye and bitters.