When you enter the wide world of whiskeys, you quickly learn that there is a veritable slew of terms to learn. A lot of this comes down to whiskey label terms that you need to know before making a purchase (such as "single malt" or "cask strength"), but the learning doesn't stop after your bottles have been scanned at the cash register. When you're serving your whiskey, either on its own or in a cocktail of some sort, you need to know what kind of measurements you're working with. So when you hear someone calling for a "finger" of whiskey, to what exactly are they referring?

Unlike more precise measurements that count on using proportions, such as measuring your cocktails in parts, a finger of whiskey is much less exact in its measurements. At its core, a finger of whiskey merely refers to the amount of liquor you'd get if you hold your finger horizontally at the glass's base and pour until the whiskey reaches the top of your finger. On average, this can measure somewhere around 1.5 ounces, but there are, of course, a number of variables that can change this. On the whole, though, a finger of whiskey is less an exact measurement and more an eyeballed measurement, which is why you should probably avoid saying it when ordering drinks at an established bar. In the comfort of your own home, though, and with your own trusty hands, it shouldn't take long to figure out how strong or weak a finger of whiskey is to you.