27 Different Types of Spoons

A high-quality spoon assortment should be part of every cook’s culinary arsenal. Spoons come in various designs, sizes, shapes and are made from different materials. 

This article covers the most popular and historically significant styles. It features main spoon types with unique features. If you know of more spoon types, please let us know in the comments. 

Table of Contents

Different Types of Spoons

Bouillon Spoon

These feature a wide and shallow bowl, exposing more surface area of hot and cold dishes. It’s served with clear, broth-based soup for quicker cooling. It’s also perfect for jellied soups like the cold-served madrilene.

Tablespoon

A tablespoon is one of the most common utensils out there. It’s versatile and widely used for eating cereal, rice, ice cream, or desserts. Also, you can use tablespoons for measuring dry and liquid ingredients.

Teaspoon

Teaspoon looks like a smaller version of a tablespoon. Teaspoons are multi-purpose utensils commonly found in most cutlery sets. They are ideal for adding sugar to coffee or tea and stirring a variety of drinks. Teaspoons are also the best size for feeding toddlers.

Coffee Spoon

A coffee spoon looks like a smaller version of a teaspoon. It has a shorter and thinner handle and a much smaller oval-shaped bowl. This spoon isn’t for preparing coffee but for serving alongside coffee. You can use coffee spoons for stirring and sipping the coffee. Some specialist cutlery sets will include coffee spoons, but they are very common. Your best option is to buy coffee spoons online from Amazon. 

Gumbo and Chowder Spoon

A gumbo spoon is a great choice for thicker soups with meat and vegetable chunks. This type of spoon has a 7-inch long handle with a large bowl. The bowl is wide and shallow, allowing for big scoops and faster cooling of hot soups. 

Horn Spoon

These spoons are made from animal horns. They are perfect for eating boiled eggs and won’t tarnish over time from being exposed to the sulfur in the egg yolk. Plus, they’re suitable for eating caviar and won’t change the delicate taste of roe.

Korean Spoon

The Korean spoon features a long handle and a shallow round bowl. This type of spoon is as long as chopsticks. It’s a sturdy spoon made from heavy-duty stainless steel. It’s usually wrapped in fabric embroidered with symbols of longevity, making it a popular wedding gift.

Parfait Spoon

These spoons are ideal for eating parfait, sorbets, sundaes, and other desserts served in tall glasses. Parfait spoons feature long, slim handles leading to an oval-shaped bowl.

Plastic Spoon

These modern-day spoons use plastic and are available in different sizes. They are inexpensive, and you can discard them after use. They’re flexible, stain-resistant, and come in a wide range of colors. You can even buy transparent plastic spoons for everyday use. 

If you want eco-friendly options, you can choose biodegradable plastic spoons. 

Coffee Measuring Spoon

This type of spoon is suitable for measuring coffee granules when preparing the beverage. It has a small, deep, round bowl at the end of a metal handle. Some coffee brands also include small plastic versions of coffee measuring spoons in their jars to help people prepare their coffee.

You can use these spoons to measure ground coffee beans or instant coffee granules. If you’re a coffee connoisseur and prefer great-tasting coffee, these measuring spoons are perfect for you. They’ll make sure that your morning coffee never disappoints.

Egg Spoon

This type of spoon is perfect for eating boiled eggs from an egg cup. The bowl of egg spoons is more rounded than teaspoons, making them ideal for scooping the egg out of the egg holder.

If you’re someone who enjoys eating boiled eggs, you’ll love the convenience this spoon brings to your life. You can also buy egg gift sets featuring cups and spoons for your loved ones.  

Chinese Spoon

Chinese spoons feature high-quality materials and are easy to clean. These spoons are durable and popular in Chinese cuisine. You’ll find Chinese spoons at many oriental restaurants worldwide. This type of spoon has a short handle and a thick handle. The bowl is very large and deep compared to the rest of the spoon.

These spoons are ideal for eating soups and broths or for serving sauces. You can also use them for eating rice.

Soup Spoon

Soup spoons make eating soup a fun and less messy experience. This type of spoon features a large oval-shaped bowl for easy eating. It has the deepest bowl to handle foods like vegetables or ravioli. Also, this spoon helps reduce the risk of spilling the soup.

Most restaurants serve soups with soup spoons, providing a sophisticated and enjoyable meat option. 

Iced Tea Spoon

An iced teaspoon has a bowl identical to a teaspoon. However, iced tea spoons feature a longer and thinner handle than regular teaspoons. 

You can use iced teaspoons to stir lemon, sugar, and ice in iced tea pitchers. This helps distribute flavors evenly and dissolve sugar. Most restaurants serve iced teas in tall glasses, so you may be given an ice teaspoon to continue mixing and stirring.  

Sundae Spoon

 These spoons are perfect for eating sundaes, parfaits, sorbets, parfaits, and other desserts served in a tall glass. A sundae spoon features a small oval bowl and is ideal for ice-cream serving shops, cafes, and restaurants. It also has a long handle that helps customers reach the bottom of the tall glass to scoop the final remnants of the dessert.  

 Salt Spoon

 This is a miniature spoon featuring an oval-shaped bowl and a short handle. It’s used with salt dishes or salt dips as part of a formal table setting. 

Salt spoons can be made of high-quality sterling silver, wood, or glass. This special piece of formal tableware dates back to the 1600s. Nowadays, people rarely use salt spoons and instead use salt shakers or grinders. But if you’re looking for specialty tableware, you may want to add a salt spoon to your collection.

Bar Spoon

Bar spoons are a common utensil used by a bartender to prepare mixed drinks. These types of spoons have a shallow bowl and a very long handle. They can easily reach the bottom of tall tumblers and glasses, ensuring all the ingredients are properly mixed.

The handle of a bar spoon often has engravings or a textured surface. This makes it easier for a bartender to grab the spoon even if their fingers are wet. Also, the bowl end of the bar spoon can be used for measuring cocktail components.

Ladle

This one is a type of serving spoon featuring a long handle and a cup-shaped bowl. Ladles vary in shape and are available in a range of materials, including plastic or metal. They are most commonly used to dish out food with high liquid content, making it easier and less messy to serve the food. You can serve a ladle with foods such as casseroles, soups, and stews. Plus, ladles are useful for serving small portions of sauce or to top pasta with various gravies and sauces.  

Serving Spoon

Serving spoons are a large version of a tablespoon. They have an oversized, oval-shaped bowl attached to a long handle. They can help remove food from the main dish to individual plates. For example, during Thanksgiving, you might have a serving spoon in a bowl of mashed potato so that guests can transfer the required amount to their plate.

These spoons are not as big as ladles and do not feature round bowls, so they are not suitable for serving liquid dishes.

Salad Spoons

This type of spoon usually comes as part of a cutlery set for serving salads. A salad spoon resembles a serving spoon but is marginally smaller. It’s a perfect utensil for mixing and serving salads.

 Salad spoons are most commonly made of wood or metal.

Olive Spoon

This type of spoon is a small spoon with a round bowl and a short handle. The bowl-like part of the spoon has slots in the base, helping you reach into a jar of olives to scoop one out and draining any liquid out of the slots. You may also use olive spoons for retrieving similar small food items out of the brine, such as small pickled garlic, onions, or tinned fruit.

Spaghetti Spoon

A spaghetti spoon is commonly used for preparing and serving spaghetti. It looks like a ladle but has tines all around the edges. If you’ve tried to serve spaghetti without using one of these utensils, you probably know that it’s a messy and frustrating job.

These simple utensils save time in the kitchen so that you can serve spaghetti straight out of the cooking pan without having to use a sieve to drain it first. Some spaghetti spoons also have a hole in the base of the spoon to help measure out your portion sizes. 

Slotted Spoon

This is another serving spoon featuring slots in the bowl portion of the spoon. You can use slotted spoons to serve boiled vegetables. For example, you can serve peas or carrots straight from the pan onto a plate. The slots will allow all of the boiling water to drain away while keeping the cooked vegetables on the spoon. These spoons can help you save time in the kitchen and make cleaning up a breeze. That’s because you won’t need to drain your veggies in a different container. Also, slotted spoons aren’t just limited to serving veggies and can be used to dish out any food that needs to be separated from the liquid.

Wooden Spoon

Wooden spoons are commonly used in baking. They have long handles and flat paddles with an oval-shaped bowl, making them ideal for mixing ingredients in a large bowl. These wooden utensils are also versatile and can be used in many ways when cooking and preparing food. For example, you can use a wooden spoon for mixing casseroles or stews. You can also use wooden spoons for other jobs, such as serving baked beans or mixing salad.

Wooden spoons are popular because they are inexpensive, useful, and long-lasting. Some wooden spoons are uncoated, while others have a protective lacquer coating. If you want to protect your wooden spoon, try to avoid loading it in the dishwasher or leaving it submerged in water for hours. Instead, use a wet cloth to clean it and dry it straight afterward.

Sugar Spoon

You may find sugar spoons in a fine-dining restaurant serving afternoon tea. They’re also a part of most tea sets available online and in-stores. They are perfect for scooping up sugar and adding it to a hot beverage. These spoons are small and delicate and feature a bowl that looks like a seashell.

Some sugar spoons may also have a square, shovel-shaped bowl to help pick up sugar from the sugar pot. Sugar spoons hold around the same volume as a teaspoon, so if you know how many teaspoons of sugar you prefer in your tea or coffee, you can add the same amount using a sugar spoon.

Risotto Spoon

A risotto spoon can help prepare risotto dishes. These large spoons are usually made from wood and can help scrape any sticky risotto away from the saucepan. The bowl portion of the spoon is oval-shaped or sometimes more rounded. It also has a hole in it so that the risotto grains can pass through the spoon during cooking. 

Baby Spoon

Baby spoons are small spoons used for feeding babies. These spoons feature food-grade rubber or plastic for added safety. Also, these spoons have handles around the same size teaspoons so that the baby can grip them more easily.

The bowl part of the spoon is smaller than a standard teaspoon because babies’ mouths are small, but they might feature a deeper curve so that the spoon can hold more baby food with less chance of spillage.

Toddler or Child Spoon

These spoons are smaller than a standard teaspoon but can have metal bowls so that the child feels like their cutlery resembles their older siblings’ or parents’ cutlery. This can also encourage toddlers to feed themselves for when they attend preschool. Lastly, these types of spoons have a chunky plastic handle to ensure a good grip.

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