A snifter is a tulip-shaped glass designed for serving
brandy (including Cognac, Armagnac and variants such as Calvados), whisky, whiskey and similar strong, aromatic drinks. A snifter has a wide
bowl and a narrow opening, which helps concentrate the aroma and makes the
drink's flavour stand out. The stem is short and leads to a wide base, which
is necessary to keep the glass stable. In crude ASCII art:
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A snifter should be held with the palm facing upwards and the
stem between the middle and index fingers, with the rest of the hand wrapped lightly around the
base of the bowl. This will warm the drink — good brandies are best
appreciated at slightly warmer than room temperature.
Snifters are often seen in films being held by stereotypical
rich people. This is more due to the nature of the drink than the glass itself,
although hand-made Murano snifters can cost anywhere up to €100 each. For
those without that kind of money to burn, fancy cut glass snifters can be
found in many antiques shops and on eBay for far more reasonable
prices; failing that, plain and cheap snifters are available in many high street
stores.
If filled to the rim, a typical snifter will hold somewhere
between 350ml and 550ml of liquid. However, when serving brandy or whisky, a
single measure is 25ml to 45ml in a bar (depending upon the
country, local legislation and sometimes the individual bar), or anywhere up to 50ml when serving at home. Thus, the
liquid should not usually come up beyond the widest part of the glass.
Some snifters can be tilted so that the edge of the base
and the widest part of the bowl touch the table, leaving the opening somewhere
around 15mm off the surface. Such a glass can then be filled up to the base of the
opening to obtain a single serving. Unfortunately, not all glass makers are
aware of this traditional method of measurement, so some glasses do not have the
correct size of base to make this work.