Shot glass facts for kids
A shot glass is a glass originally designed to hold or measure spirits or liquor, which is either imbibed straight from the glass ("a shot") or poured into a cocktail ("a drink"). An alcoholic beverage served in a shot glass and typically consumed quickly, in one gulp, may also be known as a "shooter".
Shot glasses decorated with a wide variety of toasts, advertisements, humorous pictures, or other decorations and words are popular souvenirs and collectibles, especially as merchandise of a brewery.
Contents
Name origin
The word shot, meaning a drink of alcohol, has been used since at least the 17th century, while it is known to have referred specifically to a small drink of spirits in the U.S. since at least the 1920s. The phrase shot glass has been in use since at least the 1940s.
Earliest shot glasses
Some of the earliest whiskey glasses in America from the late 1700s to early 1800s were called "whiskey tasters" or "whiskey tumblers" and were hand blown. They are thick, similar to today's shot glasses, but will show a pontil mark or scar on the bottom, or a cupped area on the bottom where the pontil mark was ground and polished off. Some of these glasses even have hand-applied handles and decorations hand crafted using a grinding wheel.
In the early to mid-1800s, glass blowers began to use molds and several different patterns of "whiskey tasters" in several different colors were being made in molds. These glasses are also thick like today's shot glass but they will have rough pontiled bottoms from being hand blown into the mold. By the 1870s to 1890s as glass making technology improved, the rough pontiled bottoms largely disappeared from glasses and bottles.
Sizes
| Country | Small | Single | Double | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albania | 50 ml | 100 ml | ||
| Australia | 30 ml | 60 ml | A single shot is sometimes called a "nip". At 30 ml, a typical spirit with 40 percent alcohol is roughly equivalent to one Australian standard drink. | |
| Bulgaria | 50 ml | 100 ml | 200 ml | |
| Canada | 30 ml (1 US fl oz) or 28 ml (1 imp fl oz) | 44 ml (1.5 US fl oz) or 43 ml (1.5 imp fl oz) | 71 ml (2.5 imp fl oz) | In Canada, a "shot" may refer to an official "standard drink" of 1.5 imperial fluid ounces or 42.6 millilitres, though all establishments serve a "standard drink" of 1 oz. However, shot glasses available in Canada typically are manufactured according to US fluid ounces rather than imperial, making them about 4% larger. |
| Channel Islands | 25 ml | 50 ml | Jersey and Guernsey, both Crown Dependencies. | |
| Denmark | 20 ml | 40 ml | 50 ml | |
| Estonia | 20 or 30 ml | 40 ml | ||
| Finland | 20 ml | 40 ml | N/A | |
| France | 25 or 35 ml | 50 or 70 ml | ||
| Germany | 20 ml | 40 ml | In Germany, shot glasses (Schnapsglas, Pinnchen, Stamperl) are smaller. | |
| Greece | 45 ml | 90 ml | A shot is also commonly referred to as a sfinaki and it can be made of one liquor or a cocktail mix. There is also a 3 oz – "bottoms up" – version of sfinaki, called ipovrihio, Greek word for submarine. It is served in a standard liquor glass half full of blonde beer, where the bartender adds a glass shot filled with vodka or whiskey. | |
| Hungary | 20 or 30 ml | 40 or 50 ml | 80 or 100 ml | In Hungarian, shot glasses are called felespohár (feles meaning "half", standing for 0.5 dl), pálinkáspohár (for pálinka), kupica or stampedli. |
| India | 30 ml | 30 ml | 60 ml | A shot is commonly referred to as a "peg", and is measured as a "small" (chhota), or a "large" (bud-da) peg. A 120 ml shot (approximate quantity) in India is called a Patiala peg. |
| Ireland | 35.5 ml | 71 ml | Derived from the use of a quarter-gill (35.516 ml, one-sixteenth of a pint) as the traditional Irish spirit measure. | |
| Isle of Man | 28.4 ml | 56.8 ml | One-fifth of an imperial gill. | |
| Israel | 30 ml | 50 or 60 ml | In Israel, the common word for a small shot is צ'ייסר ("chaser"). | |
| Italy | 30 ml | 40 or 60 ml | In Italy, the common word for a shot is cicchetto or, more informally and used mainly in nightclubs by young people, shottino. In North Italy, the cicchetto is the most-common way to taste grappa from at least two centuries. | |
| Japan | 30 ml | 60 ml | In Japanese, the word ショットグラス (shottogurasu) is the term for a shot glass. | |
| Korea | 50 ml | Due to the reason shot glasses are almost exclusively used with Soju, they are called 소주잔 (soju-jan, lit. Soju glass). | ||
| Netherlands | 35 ml | In the Netherlands a standard shot glass is 35ml. A shot glass is also called a borrelglas, in which borrel means a glass or shot of an alcoholic drink and borrelen is the verb. | ||
| Norway | 20 ml | 40 ml | ||
| Poland | 20 ml | 50 ml | 100 ml | A standard shot (small) is called pięćdziesiątka (lit. fifty, as in 50 ml) while a large shot (double) is called setka or, colloquially, seta (lit. a hundred, as in 100 ml). |
| Romania | 50 ml | 100 ml | A small shot is traditionally known in the Romanian language as unu mic (una mică) meaning "a small one" or cinzeacă, meaning "a fifty", as in fifty milliliters. A single shot is simply called unu (una mare), meaning "one (big)". | |
| Russia | 50 ml | 100 ml | Both single and double shots are commonly called стопка (stópka) in Russian, though a variety of slang names exist. Before metrication a single shot was called шкалик (shkálik) and amounted to 61.5 ml, while a double was called чарка (chárka) and was equal to 123 ml — both names are still occasionally used. | |
| Serbia | 20 ml | 30–50 ml | 60–100 ml | A single shot is traditionally known in the Serbian language as чашица за ракију and ракијска чашица, meaning "small glass for rakija" and "rakija glass", or simply as мера—мерица, meaning "measure". A double shot is simply called Дупли, meaning "a double", while the smallest, 20 milliliter glass, is known as dvojka meaning "two". |
| Sweden | 20 ml | 40 ml | 60 ml | A single shot is referred to as a fyra, meaning "a four" and a double is referred to as a sexa, meaning "a six", as Swedes generally use centiliters rather than milliliters. |
| Slovakia | 20 or 25 ml | 40 or 50 ml | 80 or 100 ml | The most-common single-shot size is the pol deci (literally, "half a decilitre", 50 ml). |
| Slovenia | 30 ml | 50 ml | 100 ml | The 50 ml size is colloquially known as nula pet ("zero five", meaning 0.5 of a decilitre), and the small one nula tri ("zero three"). Another common term for a single shot is ta kratek, meaning "the short one". |
| South Africa | 25 ml | 50 ml | The South African government has an official definition for the single-shot size. | |
| United Kingdom | 25 or 35 ml | 50 or 70 ml | Shots sold on-premises must contain either 25 ml or 35 ml measures of whisky, gin, rum, or vodka as defined in the Weights and Measures Act of 1985. This requirement does not extend to other spirits. A 2001 amendment allowed a double shot of 70 ml to be served. Generally, a single shot is equal to 35 ml in Northern Ireland and Scotland and 25 ml in Wales and England. | |
| United States | 30 to 44 ml (1.0 to 1.5 US fl oz) | 59 to 89 ml (2 to 3 US fl oz) | There is no standard size for a single shot, except in Utah, where a shot is defined as 1.5 US fl oz (44.4 ml). Elsewhere in the U.S., the standard size is generally considered to be 1.25–1.5 US fl oz (37–44 ml). A double shot in the U.S. may be 2 fluid ounces or more. However in most of the U.S. 1.5 US fl oz is the standard, with 1.5 US fl oz of 40% A.B.V spirit having the equivalent alcohol of 12 US fl oz of 5% beer, and 5 US fl oz of 12% wine. |
Types of shot glasses
Cheater glass
These glasses are for those wary of heavy drinking, or for establishments which want to cheat their patrons into thinking they are being given more than they are in reality. Their bottoms are sturdy and thick, so they give the illusion of a plain shot glass, when in reality they only hold two-thirds as much liquid.
Single glass
A single shot glass holds a full shot.
Fluted glass
A fluted glass is a type of shot glass with a basic fluting featured on the base of the glass.
Pony glass
Pony glasses can only hold about an ounce (30 ml) of fluid each but are normally used while mixing drinks into a larger glass.
Tall shot glass
Tall shot glasses are taller, but narrower. They are sometimes also known as shooter glasses.
Rounded glass
In rounded shot glasses, the walls of the glass curve down leaving a 10 centimetre difference between the lip of the glass and the bottom rim of the glass. They are popular in Europe.
Shot-measuring tools
Jigger
A jigger, also known as a measure, is a bartending tool used to measure liquor, which is typically then poured into a glass or cocktail shaker.
The term jigger in the sense of a small cup or measure of spirits or wine originates in the U.S. in the early 19th century. Many references from the 1800s describe the "jigger boss" providing jiggers of whiskey to Irish immigrant workers who were digging canals in the U.S. Northeast.
The style of double-ended jigger common today, made of stainless steel with two unequal sized opposing cones in an hourglass shape, was patented in 1893 by Cornelius Dungan of Chicago. Typically, one cone measures a regulation single shot, and the other some fraction or multiple—with the actual sizes depending on local laws and customs.
A contemporary jigger measure in the U.S. usually holds 1.5 US fluid ounces (44 ml), while the jiggers used in the U.K. are typically 25 ml or sometimes 35 ml. Jiggers may also hold other amounts and ratios, and can vary depending on the region and date of manufacture. Many jiggers may also have fractional markings on the inside of the bowl, to facilitate smaller measures of liquid.
In the U.S. up until Prohibition, a jigger was commonly known to be about half a gill, or 2 US fluid ounces (59 ml), but starting in the latter part of the 20th century, it is typically interpreted to be 1.5 US fluid ounces (44 ml).
Measuring shot glass
A shot glass graduated in smaller units such as half-ounces, teaspoons, tablespoons, or millilitres. They are useful for precise measurement of cocktail ingredients, as well as in cooking recipes that call for multiples of a smaller unit (e.g. several teaspoons), allowing the dispensing of the amount in a single measure.
de:Trinkglas#Schnapsglas
See also
In Spanish: Vaso de chupito para niños
