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Glass Shapes Can Make Us Drink Too Much

Roland Piquepaille writes "Some people think that a glass is half empty while others see it as half full. But one thing is sure: some glasses are fuller than others. According to the British Medical Journal (BMJ), researchers from Cornell University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have shown that short glasses are more likely to lead to over-indulgence. In fact, people pour 20-30 percent more alcohol into short, wide glasses than into tall, narrow ones of the same volume. The researchers obtained similar results with students and professional bartenders. So, as New Year's Eve is coming, remember to use only tall glasses for your party!!!"

12 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. Further Study by gbulmash · · Score: 5, Informative
    They reported this on NPR last night ("All Things Considered") and tested two Washington DC bartenders who turned out to be pretty accurate. One was spot on, the other went against the study and actually filled the tall glass a smidge more.

    The real trick to this is the "four pour". With a certain standardized spout that they attach to bottles in most bars, you start pouring, count to four, and you're pretty close to the 1.5 ounce mark. This is what's taught in most bartending schools, and if the bartenders stick with it instead of trying to eyball the amount, they get it right much more often.

    - Greg

  2. Myth by winkydink · · Score: 4, Informative
    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

    1. Re:Myth by syukton · · Score: 4, Informative

      So use Google as a proxy:

      http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://www .snopes.com/toxins/water.htm&langpair=en|en

      See the langpair=en|en bit? Translate from English...to English! I read about this trick on digg a few days ago.

      --
      Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
  3. Re:Warning by Tango42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the UK all pint glasses (and other sized glasses) that alcohol is served in are engraved with the size and an official coat of arms - it's illegal to use any non-standard glasses.

  4. Re:Interesting but not too surprising by jpmkm · · Score: 4, Informative

    We spent a few days talking about this in my cognitive psych class last semester. It's called conservation, and Piaget did quite a few experiments very similar to what you described when he was working out his stages of development. The preoperational(~3-7 years old) stage is when children have difficulty realizing that the volume of liquid is actually the same. Concrete operational(~7-11 years old) is when children start developing the skills for thinking logically about stuff(such as the conservation of liquid), and can realize that the volume of liquid is indeed the same. It's really a bit odd at first to see a group of children at one age say that one glass has more water than the other, and another group of children a year or two older realize they have the same amount.

    Damn. I never thought I would use anything from that class.

  5. Re:Georgia Tech by metlin · · Score: 2, Informative

    Nope - it was Ramesh Jain.

  6. Re:Warning by RollingThunder · · Score: 4, Informative

    In Canada, there's a unit under Industry Canada called Measurement Canada.

    http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inmc-mc.ns f/en/Home

    If they say it's a pint, it has to be a pint. You can report a bar to this group and they will investigate, and cite if necessary (not listed on their site but was stated by a representative of theirs on a CBC Radio One show, I believe Quirks and Quarks).

  7. Re:Martini glasses by pthisis · · Score: 2, Informative

    He never said it was whisky, he said it was whiskey. Which it is-at least according to Webster's, according to the bottle itself ("Jack Daniels Sour Mash Whiskey") and according to common usage. If you're going to use a non-standard definition you should specify that, and you shouldn't claim others are flat-out wrong when their definition is both technically correct (by the dictionary) and fits common parlance.

    Side note: Bourbon is a subset of whiskey, but Jack Daniels is not a bourbon. It's a Tennessee whiskey (George Dickel is another common Tennessee whiskey that is not a bourbon). Tennessee whiskeys are filtered through sugar-maple charcoal and tend to be sweeter than true bourbons.

    Knob Creek, which the parent mentioned, is a bourbon (other common bourbons include Jim Beam and Maker's Mark).

    Some say that the Scottish use the spelling "whisky" for all whiskey, others claim it's reserved for Scotch whiskey. Not being Scots I can't comment, but I can say that in the US the spelling "whiskey" is almost always used and the spelling "whisky" is generally reserved for Scotch and Canadian whiskeys (as well as Japanese Scotch-style whiskeys).

    My favorite whiskeys remain Talisker, Lagavulin, and Bushmill's 10-year single malt Irish whiskey.

    --
    rage, rage against the dying of the light
  8. Re:Warning by whitehatlurker · · Score: 2, Informative
    on a CBC Radio One show

    I think it might have been DNTO and Nick Purdon's quest for the true pint.

    --
    .. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
  9. Re:editorial mistake. by RingDev · · Score: 2, Informative

    "You can drink an ugly girl pretty, but you can't drink a fat girl thin"

    I can't remember who to attribute that to though.

    -Rick

    --
    "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
  10. Re:Warning by trewornan · · Score: 2, Informative

    The authority is Her Majesty's Inspector of Weights and Measures and the coat of arms is not in fact a coat of arms but the Imperial Crown.

  11. Re:It's like Ausies and Fosters by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 2, Informative

    And also remember, Budweiser (Budvar) started out as a european beer, way back when.

    Right, but they taste very different-- Budvar from eské Budjovice is very bitter compared to American Budweiser.

    But hey, check it out-- Budvar is apparently now marketed in the States under the name Czechvar!. I wonder if it travels well. I'll keep my eyes open next time I'm at the store.