A trick to getting more booze in bars

image by Kyle May

This tip comes just in time for the weekend.

I read about the trick on Bundle, a great personal finance site. This article points out how you can possibly get more alcoholic drinks in bars, if you say the right words. Here are the details:

The key to a bigger drink: Order by the short glass

Is it too early to start the weekend? Whenever you belly up to the bar next, remember this key phrase: “In a tumbler.” It’s not a secret bartender code that will get you a bottle of Cristal on the house, but ordering your drink in a shorter, wider glass will get you a more generous pour.

Here’s why: according to researchers at Georgia Tech and Cornell, when people judge volume, they pay attention to how tall things are, but don’t compensate for width. In their study . . . researchers found that even the experienced bartenders overpoured by 20.5 percent when they they were serving in short, wide glasses than when they were serving in taller, narrower ones. [emphasis mine]

Granted, this is not going to work in every bar. I have been to places where they measure each drink by shot glasses and asking for a shorter glass is fruitless.

Still, there are numerous times I am in busy bars where bartenders just eyeball drink measurements, and this tip can definitely come in handy.

The 2005 study referenced above was notably corroborated in 2010 by a British scientist. His study found that bartenders poured 26 percent more alcohol in fat and short glasses tumblers compared to skinny and tall high ball glasses.

Cheers to that.