Three profiles, three genuinely different jobs. Most venues own the wrong one because they inherited it.

The martini V

Iconic, and impractical. A wide shallow V has a high centre of gravity and a large open surface, so it spills at the slightest knock and loses aromatics immediately.

It is also usually too big. Modern V-bowls run around seven ounces, and a correctly built cocktail is about three, so the drink looks mean unless you overpour it.

The coupe

The same capacity sitting much lower, so it is far harder to tip — which is why bars serving across a room on trays keep moving to it.

It also gives you more usable branding area, because the gentler curve lets a mark sit flatter and read from further away without distorting.

The Nick & Nora

Small, stemmed, tulip-bowled, and simply the right size for a properly built drink. Three ounces fills it generously instead of looking lost.

The tulip shape also holds aromatics far better than an open V, which for anything stirred and spirit-forward is most of the point.

And stemless

A separate decision driven by breakage rather than elegance. It removes the part that snaps and racks far more densely, at the cost of warming the drink faster because the hand sits on the bowl. In a high-volume room the arithmetic usually decides it.