Here’s a list of the different kinds of glassware you’ll want to have around in order to truly have the full-stocked bar that lesser hosts merely dream about. Well, actually, here are two lists. To be honest, you don’t necessarily need every single type of glass, and I’m not going to just assume that you can afford to stock every kind of glass in your home.

So, for the sake of practicality, I’ve broken this one down into two categories: the glassware you absolutely have to have, and the non-essentials—things that you technically should have on hand, but nobody’s going to give you a hard time if you don’t have them handy.

Part 1 - Essentials:

• Cocktail/Martini Glasses: The best kinds are the long-stemmed glasses: holding the drink by the stem keeps warm hands away from the cocktail, which means the drinks remain colder longer. And everybody loves a nice, cold drink. (4 oz.)
• Old Fashioned (Rocks) Glasses: These are the small tumbles you see used for drinks served on-the-rocks. It’s named after the Muddled Old Fashioned cocktail. (4 oz.)
• Highball Glasses: These are for the fizzy drinks—anything mixed with soda. Named after the Highball cocktail. (10 oz.)
• Pint Glasses: These are not only for beer—you can use these for mixing cocktails when the martini mixer is in use, for serving juice-based cocktails, frozen drinks and for non-alcoholic beverages. All told, you’ll need more of these than any of the other types of glasses. (16 oz.)
• Champagne Flutes: If you’re throwing a party to celebrate an event, then you will most likely be breaking out the bubbly. If you’re throwing a really large party, you can often pick up a box of plastic champagne flutes; people generally only have one or two glasses of champagne anyway, so they won’t really mind if it’s not glass. If a guest has had three or more glasses of champagne, (s)he probably already stopped caring what they’re drinking it out of at this point, so no worries. (4-6 oz.)

(Tomorrow: Part 2 - Non-essentials)