After a long day of commuting, meetings, and staring at screens, enjoying a well-made cocktail or an ice-cold beer can be necessary to relax and unwind. Step one to achieving the perfect drinking experience? Using the right vessel. But beyond ensuring that you’ve selected the right stemware for your Martini or the proper pint for your lager, the temperature of your glassware is also an important factor.
If you’re looking to nurse your drink, ensuring it stays cold for as long as possible should be top of mind. Who wants a room-temperature beer? Not us, that’s for sure. One of the most reliable ways to make sure your drink remains nice and cold is by storing your glassware in the freezer. But while many beverages are best served out of frosted glasses, there are always exceptions to rules, and this hack is no different. To learn more about which types of glassware should always be stored in the freezer and which are best kept on our bar carts, VinePair tapped Trevor Langer, beverage director at NYC’s Porchlight.
When choosing which glasses to chill pre-serving, Langer says the most important thing to consider is how much dilution your cocktail needs. For example, if your build is iceless, a stone-cold glass is ideal for keeping it chilled.
“Stemware like Martini glasses and Nick and Noras should always be kept in the freezer,” he explains. “When cocktails are served up, there is already a perfect rate of dilution before it’s poured into the glass, so you’re not waiting for it to further dilute over ice. So having those stemmed glasses frozen to keep the cocktail as cold as possible for as long as possible is absolutely necessary.”
On the flip side, if a cocktail is served on the rocks, you may not want to store those glasses at sub-zero temps. As ice cubes provide further dilution for these types of drinks after they’re shaken or stirred, they’re not built to be the perfect ABV the moment they’re poured. The drinks will continue to evolve as the ice melts, lowering the proof of the spirits involved. But when these drinks are served in frozen glasses, Langer says, the ice will melt much slower, thus making it more challenging for them to reach their optimal level of dilution.
“Of course, there are outliers here, like the Sazerac, which is served down with no ice,” he adds as a caveat. “But overall, especially if you have a finite amount of freezer space, I would say that rocks glasses in the freezer should not be a top priority.”
As for beer glasses, Langer says it all comes down to personal preference. While some may argue that the only beer that belongs in a frosted glass is a macro lager, brews tend to warm a bit faster than cocktails as your hand wraps around the circumference of the glass every time you take a sip. So, if you want your brew cold for as long as possible, Langer says to go for the frozen glass.
“At the end of the day, it’s a combination of effectiveness and preference,” he says. “I’m sure everyone has had a warm beer once, and it’s never the best. Frozen glasses are effective at keeping the beer cold, and if you prefer your beer cold, it’s all about finding the marriage of those two.”
