One of the reasons I started Scotch Addict was because my wife gave me a wonderful Christmas gift last year. She gave me six scotch tasting glasses by Reidel, a copy of Michael Jackson’s Complete Guide To Single Malt Scotch, and a copy of Whiskey: The Definitive World Guide. I thoroughly recommend both books for the scotch aficionado but today I want to talk about why you should get special glasses to help you enjoy single malt scotches (or any whiskey).

The primary reason why you want to use a special glass is because it allows you the ability to both smell and sip the scotch at the same time. As long as the glass affords you that ability, it’ll work for scotch purposes. The idea is that you’ll want to swirl the scotch around in the glass and then smell the fragrances and aromas that waft up to your nose. A traditional whiskey tumbler is not an ideal glass, even though it offers you the sip and smell ability, because it was designed for drinking scotch and sodas. However, not there’s no reason to be a snob, if all you have is a plastic Solo cup, you can still enjoy scotch!