The Best Whiskey Glasses (2024) Whether You Take Yours Neat or on the Rocks

This isn’t meant to spoil the rest of this guide, but “the best whiskey glass” is not a thing. Our lives are assembled from hundreds of small rituals: brushing our teeth, brewing our morning coffee, or arranging our pillows just so before going to be. Sipping whiskey is that sort of personalized ritual, and different people demand different things from it.

Check out the rest of the whiskey glasses we recommend

Sitting down after a long week with a glass of whiskey and a musty old book or a drink with a close friend is one of the few times when the phones are put away and time stops. These rare sacred moments are very individual. The idea of telling someone that a specific whiskey glass is the absolute best is silly, like trying to dictate the design of their wedding ring for them. The key here is to help you enjoy your glass of whiskey more, whether you prefer to drink it out of an old jelly jar or from a piece of hand-blown crystal glass.

Best whiskey glass for the purist: Glencairn Whisky Glass

GLENCAIRN Whiskey Glass, Set of 4

This refreshingly inexpensive glass is the gold standard of whiskey tasting glasses. If you look online at any number of fancy spirits influencers (I even see it show up in more surprising places like barbecue channels), you are likely to see an endless scroll of whiskey aficionados pouring unobtainium Scotch whisky or Bourbon into a Glencairn and lifting it to their nose. The tight tulip shaped top funnels all the aromas directly to your nose, completely undiluted by extra air flow that you would get from a wider, more tumbler-shaped glass. You get the barrel, the grain, the age, all in a concentrated blast. Do note that this experience comes complete with a stiff dose of ethanol burn, which may make this glass less appealing for more casual sippers. The Glencairn experience is an unflinchingly honest and sometimes harsh look into the very soul of a whiskey, flaws and all. The small base fits nicely between the middle and ring finger to swirl in your palm but is prone to tip over if bumped, so it’s for the best that it holds only a moderate amount of liquid. This glass does have to be tipped up almost vertically to get a sip from it, which some may not find relaxing. Your mileage may vary.

Best whiskey tasting glass for regular folks: Libbey Bourbon Trail

If the Glencairn seems like a bit much for you, then its laid back cousin from Libby, designed for tasting rooms along Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail, might be more your speed. The lower center of gravity and thicker base makes it significantly more stable and easier to drink from. Its wider, slightly belled tulip also softens the rough alcohol emanations that the Glencairn enhances. This snifter gets bonus points for being large enough to hold a medium-sized fancy ice cube. Other pluses: Like the Glencairn, it is reasonably priced and small enough that one glass sipped between page turns of a good book should not lead to a headache the next morning.

Best fancy whiskey glass: Fferrone Design Rare Whiskey Glass

This glass is a study in happy contradictions. It’s spendy and hand blown in the Czech Republic, but it is also dishwasher safe. It looks like it has a heavy base, but is actually quite light. Most interesting: As opposed to the Peugeot above, the Fferrone really seems like it is nearly indestructible. The top narrows gently and gives almost the perfect balance of olfactory inputs with an inwardly curved lip that feels much thinner than it actually is. So even though it’s big enough for a cocktail, it can work as a nosing glass. The diameter of the glass is good for whiskey enthusiasts with smaller hands and will show off well on your bar cart. The only real downside is the price of this glass. But if you’re looking for a fancy whiskey glass for yourself or to give as a gift, I think this is the clear choice.

Best double old fashioned glass: Crate and Barrel Direction Double Old Fashioned

As double old fashioned glasses go, this one is durable, affordable, and looks oh so classy. At nine ounces, it’s the same size as the fancy Fferone glass, but this one is almost comically heavy—a bourbon glass you really feel when you drink from it. And in terms of aesthetics, it’s constructed from the kind of hard lines that warm the cockles of anyone who loves Bauhaus buildings or wants to LARP Ocean’s 11. If you want a complete look for your home bar, it’s available as a highball glass as well.

Best affordable crystal old fashioned glass: Kanars Crystal Whiskey Glass

The Kanars lead-free crystal whiskey glass has the look and feel of a rocks glass you stole from a classy hotel bar. The kind of place with leather upholstered club chairs and acid jazz on the sound system. It feels both comfortable and secure in hand, and is fluted in a way that produces a pleasant tactile sensation on top of that. Of all the glasses tested, the size of the Kanars makes it one of the most versatile: big enough to work as an old fashioned glass, small enough to work as a neat glass. It also comes in a very nice case that makes it a natural choice to give as a gift for your favorite whiskey lover.

Best cheap whiskey glass: Libbey Old Fashioned Glass

Sometimes you just feel like a shot of whiskey, not a dram. You don’t want the fancy “hand wash only” glasses of the whiskey connoisseurs and instead want something more suitable for a dive bar. Bartenders have filled this Libbey glass alongside pints of PBR for decades. It is not elegant or dainty but of all the glasses it gives off the strongest vibes and you don’t have to feel badly about it if you break it by accident. You can easily imagine Charles Bukowski leaning over this glass in a smoke filled tavern while holding forth to a handful of barflies on a Tuesday afternoon.

Best outdoor whiskey glass: Miir 10 oz Lowball

One of my favorite occasions to sip whiskey is in the context of a group of friends around a roaring fire in the backyard or a campsite in the woods. My personal campfire cup has been for years an old Miir coffee cup that has taken a beating in the back of trucks and rucksacks bouncing down the trail. While I love it dearly I am seriously considering replacing it with the Miir Lowball because it was clearly designed by someone who understood what a great whiskey vessel should be. It is pleasantly bottom-heavy like a classic tumbler and has a removable lid for sipping without fear of spilling. I also like that, when not being used as an instrument of campfire relaxation, it makes a great vessel for herbal tea or coffee. I also loved that the all stainless steel design ensured that the Lowball could be thoroughly cleaned and wouldn’t take on any off flavors when switching from Chamomile to Wild Turkey.

Another beautiful neat whiskey glass: Peugeot Les Impitoyables

This was my favorite glass on the list. From its voluptuous Art Nouveau shape to the way it felt in my hand, it was unusual, like the kind of glassware you’d expect Captain Nemo to enjoy his single malt from aboard the Nautilus in a Jules Verne steampunk fever dream. The shape of the tapered top and the size of the opening also hit the sweet spot for me. The drinking experience balanced big aromas without the inside of my nostrils feeling the least bit of burn from the alcohol, even when sipping overproof bourbon. The raised dimple in the center of the base also allows you to enjoy drinking from a large glass without having to pour in three ounces of the good stuff. Even a half ounce tipple was a revelation to my somewhat jaded senses. Sadly all that wonderful comes with limitations: While testing out a crowded table full of glasses the lip of the Peugeot chipped when it came in contact with the bottom of a bottle. I am confident that any of the other vessels I tested out would have survived unscathed if treated with the same love tap, so if you choose this beautiful glass for your home bar, be gentle.

A technologically advanced, but highly functional whiskey glass: Norlan Whiskey Glass

When I first set eyes on the Norlan glass it looked, to me, like a solution in search of a problem. Truly, I did not expect to like this double-walled glass. Unlike the other glasses on the list the Norlan is hollow, like the vacuum flask of a thermos, rather than solid glass or crystal. The point of that design feature is that it is supposed to insulate your Japanese, Irish, or American whiskey from the warmth of your hand. If you don’t clutch your barware like it was a newborn baby, the importance of that kind of design is an open question. It also had the lines of a Tesla Cyber Truck, which made me dubious. However, all that changed once I actually tried it out. As it turns out, the Norlan feels great in the hand, the faceted sides show off the whiskey in the glass as if lit from within. It also offers a lot of functionality. It’s not an Old Fashioned glass, but still works well holding a few ice cubes or a three ounce cocktail. And whether the insulation is vital for improving the tasting experience, it did a great job keeping my hand from getting cold while drinking whiskey on the rocks.

How we chose the best whiskey glasses

In order to put together a list that covered as much ground as possible I researched well-reviewed glasses in a wide range of styles and price points, cutting out plenty that customer reviews indicated were made from lesser materials or had other major design flaws. Once they arrived I spent my evenings testing the different types of glasses side by side, with whiskeys of varying levels of quality and age, both neat and with a ice cubes. I noted how each glass balanced in the hand and focused the aromas of the various whiskeys. That sort of testing is unavoidably subjective, just as it is with wine glasses, silverware, or anything else designed to eat or drink with. But between each evening’s tasting I chucked them all in the dishwasher to see how they held up to the unlovely combo of harsh chemicals and rubbing against coffee cups and dirty dinner plates. Everything recommended here came out of the dishwasher just fine, including glasses like the Norlan which recommends hand washing. That isn’t a must, but it’s a nice feature for a glass to have. In the end, what I came up with is a list as good for every day use as it is for special occasions.