Stölzle Lausitz Soho

The 32 cl tumbler is the glass for everything served over ice: whisky neat, an old fashioned with one large cube, a negroni. The 25 cl martini glass is meant for shaken and stirred drinks that reach the table without ice, and 25 cl leaves room to garnish without spilling over. The 38 cl highball takes everything you top up with tonic or soda and has space for four ice cubes. Choose the 27.5 cl coupe for sparkling drinks and the 32 cl one as an all-round glass. The full comparison of shapes is with the cocktail glasses.

Chill the glass before you pour, because a drink without ice warms up in a hand-warm glass within two minutes. Five minutes in the freezer is enough, or a minute with ice and water in it. A dry martini is stirred in a mixing glass and strained into the chilled martini glass; stirring keeps it clear where shaking makes it airy and watery. A french 75, on the other hand, goes into the coupe, with the champagne added last so the bubbles stay in.

Bar glasses take more punishment than wine glasses: citric acid, sticky syrups and ice knocking against the wall. This crystal glass can go in the dishwasher on a short programme, but leave plenty of space between coupes and martini glasses, because a wide bowl on a slender stem is the most vulnerable point of the range. Store them upright, so the rim rests on nothing and the weight stays on the foot.

If it is only the cone shape you are after, the quickest comparison is with the martini glasses, where coupettes and nick and noras sit alongside them. For the tall models, look at the highball glasses, and for low tumblers at the whisky glasses, where you will find the heavier bases that carry a large ice cube. All the other ranges from the same brand, including the wine bowls and the flutes, sit together under Stölzle Lausitz.