Spoons are primarily used to transfer edibles from vessel to mouth, usually at a dining table. A spoon’s style is usually named after a food or drink with which they are most often used, the material with which they are composed, or a feature of their appearance or structure.
Coffee Spoon
Not to be confused with a coffee measuring scoop, these are small (often more so than even a teaspoon) meant to be used for stirring and sipping coffee from a smaller after-dinner coffee cup. They aren’t seen often anymore unless a part of a special set of dishes.
Dessert spoon
The core feature that sets these apart is that the bowl on them is slightly longer and more pointed than your typical oval bowl. People use them for anything, like cereal or soup, but they’re meant to be used for desserts.
They’re typically between the size of a teaspoon and a tablespoon. They were created for formal table settings, where the dessert spoon would be either brought to you with your dessert or placed above the plate.
Egg spoon
These are designed specifically for eating hard boiled eggs from an egg stand. They feature a shorter handle and a shorter bowl in order to more easily scoop inside the stand. The tip is more pointed but the bowl is more rounded than your typical teaspoon.
Grapefruit/orange spoon
Also known as an orange spoon, citrus spoon, and fruit spoon, this almost looks like a teaspoon except for the tip of the bowl, which leads either to a sharp edge or has teeth cut into it.
This makes it easier to separate the flesh of a citrus fruit or melon from the rind. Some have a very long bowl that’s about half-width, with a curved tip for scooping, though rarer.
Iced tea spoon
There’s not much to say about these. They’re basically tablespoons with much longer handles to reach the bottom of a pint glass of iced tea where sugar settles and to also make sure you’re mixing lemon or other flavors in all the way through.
Cream Soup Spoon
I’m not sure why these even exist. They’re basically soup spoons but with shorter handles and meant for eating creamier soups. This is where we get into wealthy people in the past showing off their wealth and class and making dinner more complicated with etiquette rules.
Salt spoon
These are meant to be used with salt cellars, which are just small bowls that hold salt (sometimes called a salt pig). We’ve replaced them with salt shakers, obviously. But the salt spoon itself is a miniature spoon like the caviar ones.
Teaspoon
These are smaller than tablespoons by a factor of three. A teaspoon is now a unit of volume. They’re most commonly used as stirring spoons now and sometimes to sip hot coffee or hot cocoa.
Tablespoon
Though these are most commonly used when eating, they serve a purpose for serving and food preparation. Their volume is three times that of a teaspoon. It’s used as a unit of volume, but it’s also the most commonly used spoon in general.
Demitasse Spoon
These are even smaller than coffee spoons (which are smaller than teaspoons). They’re also used for coffee drinks but particularly ones with a froth top like a cappuccino so it can be scooped and tasted alone.
You’ll see them called “espresso spoons” sometimes as well, because their size is intended for use with cups the size of espresso cups.
At stores and restaurants they’re usually plain polished silver or stainless steel (or even plastic), though home coffee brewers will often purchase one with an ornate handle.
Olive Spoon
These are made from stainless steel with slots or a hole in the bottom of the bowl. This allows you to scoop olives out from their liquid while draining the liquid before placing them in a bowl or on a plate.
They’re also used for cherries, garlic, cocktail onions, and other condiments suspended in liquid.
Salad/Berry Spoon
These feature large bowls, larger than you’d expect, that are broad and deep in order to serve berries and salads. This could be achieved with a different type of spoon but whatever. We’re too far gone already. Spoons for everything! These are often slotted to drain juices too.
Serving Spoon
These are bigger than a tablespoon but the bowl is rounder than oval shaped in order to pick up more food per scoop. It has a long handle to accommodate serving various types of food, including vegetables and cut up fruit, and to portion out salads.
Mustard spoon
For serving mustard; usually small, with a deep bowl elongated to form a scoop and set at right angles to the handle
Absinthe Spoon
This is a very unique type of spoon created specifically for absinthe drinkers. They are either perforated with holes or slotted so when you stir your drink you create a lot of little currents in the liquid.
This is great for dissolving the sugar cube that is dunked in using the utensil. The bowl end is long and flat, enough to reach over the glass and rest on it, held stable by the notch built into the bottom of the handle.
Bouillon Spoon
These feature a wide and round bowl (as opposed to an oval bowl) that is shallow, exposing more surface area of the clear, broth-based soup for quicker cooling. It’s also used for jellied soups like the cold-served madrilene.
The design is so the spoon can curve into the rounded sides of a soup bowl so you aren’t left tipping the bowl to drink it, which is considered to be not classy by many.
Chinese Spoon
Often seen at various types of oriental restaurants, these feature a shorter and thicker handle leading to a deep bowl with a flat bottom.
Usually constructed from ceramic, they’re used for liquids like soups and sauces but are often used to scoop loose, solid food items, too. They’re often called duck spoons.
Bar Spoon
These are nearly the exact same as a teaspoon at the bowl, but the handles are extremely long. They’re used in bartending when mixing or layering drinks. This lets the bowl reach the bottom of even their tallest tumblers and cups in order to ensure the bottom gets mixed up.
The bowl holds 5 milliliters of liquid (same as a teaspoon). The handle is usually a decorative swizzle stick for easy gripping when wet and making it possible to spin the bowl.
Rice Spoon
A panja is a rice spoon found in India. It features a flat surface and four finger-shaped indentations, found to make it easier to scoop and serve rice. The end of the handle often has a loop to tie off a string for easy storage.
Chutney Spoon
These are meant from scooping out chutneys from a communal dish so we aren’t just digging our hands in the mango chutney. These days you only find them in matching sets with a spoon holder and lidded dish to hold the chutneys.
Soup Spoon
These are similar to a ladle but scaled down to a dinner spoon size with a horizontal handle. They’re larger round bowls are meant for eating thin soups.
Bowl Spoon
A ladle is has a long handle and a huge, deep bowl. The handle as attached at a steep angle so you can dip down into a pot of soup or gruel and get enough in one scoop to almost fill a bowl when serving.
Stirrer
This is another general category for spoons with very long stems and small bowls, aiding in stirring liquid in any sized tumbler.
Sugar Spoon
Sometimes called a sugar shell, for some reason this type of cutlery ultimately ended up having a bowl in the shape of a sea shell. They’re about the volume of a teaspoon but with a deeper bowl, meant for serving granulated sugar.
They’re typically sterling silver and come with formal tea and coffee sets. There are some with flat bowls called sugar shovels, as well.
Source : Wikipedia