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Designs for Better Boozing: Silicone Wine Glasses
...and why I want to punch the designer of the martini glass
As I've said before, I freaking hate the design of the martini glass. It is the dumbest, least-ergonomic form factor for quaffing gin that I can think of. The top-heavy form makes them easy to topple over and break (particularly the stupid-wide ones that every bar started stocking after "Sex and the City" came out).
Enter a caption (optional)As a waiter, I saw this happen when someone unexpectedly pulled another drink off of my tray, unbalancing it. As a bartender, I watched more than one customer knock them over, and when the broken glass falls into the ice bin you have to get buckets of hot water and melt the whole goddamn thing down to find the shards, and if you don't have a bar-back because Armando's fighting with his girlfriend again you then have to go down to the icemaker in the basement (why are they always in the basement) to refill the friggin' ice bin, which is impossibly time-consuming when you're in the middle of a crunch. As a customer, if I ever have a martini I order it in a rocks glass.
Wine glasses or any kind of stemware aren't much better, from a design standpoint. So I'm digging these stemless wine glasses made out of silicone:
Enter a caption (optional)I admit it's not that classy to drink out of something that you conceivably pulled out of your back pocket. I have no idea how stable these things are on a table, and I suspect that drinking out of something flexible might cause you to spill it upwards if you squeeze it too hard. But I like that they can't break, probably because of my aforementioned experiences and the prejudices they've instilled.
Enter a caption (optional)They're not only for wine, of course, and they seem like a good option for parents with butterfingered kids.
Enter a caption (optional)
Enter a caption (optional)And I like what they've done here: Judging by the photo below, they've filled the bottom with water, frozen it to make a bottom-heavy ice base, then added whatever they're drinking on top.
Enter a caption (optional)Bonus: You can throw—literally throw—these things in the dishwasher.
Enter a caption (optional)Would you drink out of these? Should I have made this a Yea or Nay?
See More:
Ergonomically-Better Boozing: byAMT Studio's InsideOut Glassware Collection
Designs for Better Boozing, Whether Hard Liquor, Wine or Beer
Designs for Better Boozing: Foldable Flasks
Designs for Better Boozing: The Chillsner
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Comments
I'd drink out of one. And wanna get some just for camping cocktails.
i wouldnt drink out of these
A slight accidental squeeze and you'll have a vino volcano on yourself. And how does the lip of the glass feel and pour when it's as soft as your own lips, I wonder? And how does this really replace the ubiquitous, inexpensive, and disposable (no throwing into dishwasher, just throw into trash) plastic Solo cup - which by the way, don't break under casual use. I wouldn't Shark Tank this one...
Picture James Bond with Martini in a stemless silicone "glass"..
"...squeezed, not stirred"
The shape for the martini glass is more dictated the drink itself than anything else: it's served chilly, so you need a stem to prevent the warmth of your hand to heat up the drink, the wide rim is so you can smell the aromatics in the gin and you need a small bottom because a lone olive at the bottom of a tumbler looks like, well, a lonely olive. The
straightness of a cone helps to pour different layers (but I've never been a bartender but who am I to comment on that).
Drinking is not only about how easy it is to get the alcohol inside of you, what and how you drink it is also a social statement and hence esthetics come into play. Silicone - frosted - glasses would be nice for something very cold and voluminous like soda, but I'd prefer something clear for everything else.
So I'd would go for 'nay', but who knows, maybe a silicone glass is ideal for muffins?
What would prevent the wine to spill all out when one pinches the glass like the last photo of the article?
It seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
This is what happens when hundreds of years of tradition is neglected to satisfy a transient need. I would like the designer to pitch the idea to a French sommelier. The sommelier would probably try to stretch the silicone glass over the designers head.
I would suspect its not for the wine connoisseurs of the world...
I'd never buy drinking vessels shaped like that - silicone or otherwise, because the shape is too ridiculous and inherently unstable.