The Testing Glass of the World’s Finest Spirits Started as a Mistake

Lurking in the background of the spirit world’s single biggest event, you’re bound to spy a honey pot-shaped glass.

Called the NEAT Glass, which actually stands for Naturally Engineered Aroma Technology, is a short, fat cup designed under a singular premise: smell is everything. 

The Neat Glass site spells it out plainly: “Humans detect over 10,000 aromas but only five tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami). You don’t taste raspberries; you smell raspberries and taste sweet. Add mouthfeel (oily, dry, temperature, texture, minty, hot) to get the total flavor. Flavor = Aroma + Taste + Mouth Feel. Flavor is 90% aroma.”

It is the only glass used in official judging for the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, a competition whose results often determine the best bourbons, scotches, and more. It’s also nothing like a traditional whiskey snifter.

The Neat Glass’ design runs opposite to the traditional Glencairn, where a narrow top opening flushes the nose of a whiskey more directly to you.

According to NEAT’s history, the different design originated from a glass-blowing mistake and was slowly honed over time until the glass we know today launched in 2012. 

The most distinguishing feature of NEAT glasses is an outward-flaring rim. It’s intended to fight off ethanol, the enemy of accurate spirit analysis, which numbs the nose and shrouds aromas; it’s why blenders, distillers, and spirits competition judges water their whiskey down before drinking. And it’s why the glass looks like a cocktail glass ran into a Belgian beer glass.

The pitch goes like this: the wide bowl allows more surface area for swirling the juice, which agitates the liquid and forces it to evaporate from the glass, and the wide rim allows for ethanol diffusion, thereby creating a more apparent nose and — if you buy the aroma-over-everything premise — a clearer idea of what you’re drinking.

Is it all talk? You can judge for yourself for a little less than $25 on Amazon.

NEAT

The Artisan NEAT Glass 2 Pack

• $22.99 at Amazon

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