Not all whiskey glasses are created equal. Just ask Inverse’s Laurence Shanet, who gives eight of them a workout. Shanet starts with the tulip-shaped Glencairn Glass, a go-to vessel for distillers everywhere. His verdict: “This thing really works. Of all the glasses, the Glencairn’s narrow opening concentrated the smells, flavors and alcohol of our sample whiskies the most.”

Also making the grade is the bud vase–like NEAT Glass, whose name stands for Naturally Engineered Aroma Technology. With its wider rim, this one is designed to diffuse alcohol so you can enjoy the whiskey’s aromas without getting burned. “Although the alcohol aspect wasn’t as in-your-face as it is with many other glasses we tried, the NEAT was still able to pick up the secondary notes and subtle differences between various whiskies,” Shanet says. “This was especially notable on overproof whiskies.”