With dimpled handle glasses coming back into fashion and Glastonbury recently having stainless steel cups at their festival, I thought it was time to consider drinking vessels.

George Orwell talks in the Moon Under Water about strawberry pink china mugs. Times have changed since then and I confess that I’ve never drunk beer out of such a vessel so I’ll stick to what I know.

Squeezey plastic cups  (plastic glass being an oxymoron )

My least favourite, squeezey in itself enough to render the vessel close to to useless.

Solid plastic cups

Better and I find these acceptable when glass isn’t possible but they just don’t have the weight and feel of glass.

Straight from the bottle.

I find that if I’m drinking lager, it’s often best drunk ice cold and straight from the bottle.  Of course with an ale, especially bottle conditioned, that doesn’t work.

Handle Glasses

Part of me likes the idea of a handle glass and there is a certain novelty value to doffing ones cap to the past and drinking out of a handle glass but as an everyday choice, for me, it has to be…

Tulip Glass

OK, so the photograph is just an excuse to use one of my favourite shots from a place I stand on most Friday nights but I don’t think you can beat a tulip glass- there’s something about the way it fits in your hand so perfectly. It could just be that its what I’ve been used to from when I started drinking but to me its the archetypal feeling of a pint, when I picture a pint, that’s what I picture.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that other options don’t have their place because they do but I do love the feel of a nice tulip glass.