Which Came First: The Martini Or The Martini Glass?

If you're a fan of the perfect martini, there's a good chance you prefer to sip it out of a martini glass. The drink just doesn't feel the same when not sipped out of a tall, stemmed glass. While you might assume the cup was created specifically for the eponymous beverage, the martini glass is about 40 years older than the martini.

The martini glass was originally created in the 1800s and was simply called a cocktail glass. While the terms are interchangeable today, the original cocktail glass looked a bit different from a modern martini glass — it was smaller, narrower, and more rounded. It wasn't until the 1900s that the martini glass became the name of choice for the vessel, as the martini itself started to gain more popularity around this time.

The modern martini glass has a longer stem and is more V-shaped at the top. Some believe that this design was meant to allow drinks to be poured out quickly during the Prohibition of the 1920s, when alcoholic beverages were made illegal. The glass was first shown off at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris in 1925, as its angular design was in line with the Art Deco movement of that era.

While there are a lot of myths about cocktail glasses, the martini glass undoubtedly serves a practical function even after the Prohibition era. Martinis are meant to be cold but include no ice, so the long stem keeps drinkers from holding it by the bowl and warming the drink prematurely. The shape of the bowl prevents the included olives from slipping to the bottom of the glass while allowing the aroma of the gin to hit the nose more easily.

The martini glass has variations, and which you use comes down to personal preference. Many bartenders today choose not to serve martinis in a traditional martini glass, instead opting for a coupe, which has a round and shallow bowl, or a Nick and Nora, which has a narrower opening at the top. This may be due to the fact that the glass is hard to carry; the ease with which a drink can be poured out of it, while good during a police raid in Prohibition, becomes a nightmare for a bartender carrying a tray of drinks.