Glass Stories.
From soju glasses to sake cups, vodka shot glasses to beer mugs — the cultural history behind every drinking vessel, told concisely.
All Articles.
Absinthe and the Louche — The Glass That Isn't Finished Until It Clouds
Drip iced water onto a clear green spirit and the glass turns milky. For this single moment — the louche — absinthe came with a glass marked with a dose line, a slotted spoon, and even a fountain to trickle the water. The story of a drink once called the Green Fairy, banned after a single murder, and clouding again a century later — and of the glassware built around it.
Irish Coffee and Its Footed Glass — Born at an Airport Bar in the 1940s
Hot coffee, Irish whiskey, and a collar of cream — Irish coffee and its stemmed, footed glass were born together at the Foynes flying-boat terminal in 1940s Ireland. The story of Joe Sheridan's improvisation and its crossing to the Buena Vista.
Why Is a Tumbler Called a Tumbler? — The Cup You Couldn't Set Down
A tumbler takes its name from "tumble" — to fall over. Odd, since today's tumbler is the flat, heavy-bottomed glass that almost never tips. How did a cup you couldn't set down end up naming the steadiest glass on the table?
How Whisky Is Made — From Barley Field to Glass
Grain, malting, peat, mashing, fermentation, distillation, maturation, bottling — the eight stages a bottle of whisky passes through, walked through with footage of each step, including where single malt and grain split and where peat and cask decide the flavour.
The Icewine Glass — The Mouthful Canada Presses from Frozen Grapes
Most wine glasses are big, made to open up the aroma. The icewine glass is conspicuously small. The tiny yield pressed from grapes frozen on the vine, a wine that must be drunk cold, and the story of how a colder country took a German wine and became its largest producer — a small glass holds a Canadian winter.