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Glassware

Cheers 20K Gold Glassware Collection

Celebratory drinks will never look better than in the Cheers 20K Gold Glassware Collection pieces from Vital Industries. They’re great for engagements, weddings and birthday parties as well as in a housewarming or holiday gift basket. Available in 11-ounce Old Fashioned Rocks and 17.5-ounce Stemless Wine Glasses, they retail for $15 to $15.50 each. Handwashing is recommended. For more information, call Tina Hall at 303.433.1765 or email tina@vitalindustries.com.

Famous Picardie Tumblers Modern and Bold in Black

The classic French Picardie tumbler is now available in a modern, stunning black. This black, 8-3/4-ounce beauty is called Soft Touch. The outside of the glass is a smooth, matte black and the inside of the glass is a high-gloss, shiny black. The contrast in texture adds dimension to the glass and plays with the ambient light.

This new Picardie tumbler is made in the classic, often-imitated design that’s a pleasure to hold and that feels comfortable on the lip. The tumbler is practical, elegant and modern. Made in France, of course, Soft Touch elevates a traditional table design and warms a casual table design. As in fashion, black glassware goes with everything.

A set of six Soft Touch tumblers retails for $36. These tumblers, like all Picardie glassware, are made in France from tempered glass – a durable, nonporous material that is two-and-a-half times stronger than ordinary glass. Duralex glasses are stackable and safe – if broken, they shatter into small chunks rather than jagged shards – and are microwave-, freezer- and dishwasher-safe.

Picardie glasses are recognized throughout France, and remain the icon of French taverns, bistros and inns, as all Frenchmen and Frenchwomen grew up with Picardie glasses in their homes, school cafeterias and restaurants. They are used for coffee, tea, wine, cocktails and as all-purpose drinking glasses.

Picardie tumblers are made by Duralex, which has been manufacturing tempered glassware, through a process it invented, in the heart of France since 1945. Duralex is the only glass manufacturing company that manufactures all of its products in France.

Spot-Not: A Decanter Cleaner That Works

Everyone knows it is impossible to properly dry and polish the inside of a decanter – until now! Spot-Not is easy to use and so effective. The Spot-Not decanter dryer has two main parts: a drying cloth that goes into the decanter and a drying mitt for the outside. Magnetic bands draw the two parts together – when you move the outer mitt, the inside cloth moves along with it, drying and polishing the inside of the decanter. The results are nothing short of miraculous! Decanters, carafes and even vases you were embarrassed to use are suddenly restored to being your pride and joy.

Spot-Not comes in retail-friendly packaging and master packs of 12, so it is really easy to buy. CDU packaging is available, and an opening trial order sample pack with free shipping is available.

Spot-Not is a product of the Wine Lovers Group, which also offers the amazing, handblown wine glasses of Bottega del Vino Crystal – a world class line of beautiful, wine driven stemware that is light, strong and 100 percent dishwasher safe. Wine Lovers is introducing its new decanter drying rack, The Swan, that folds up to save space when not in use.

Norlan Debuts Whisky Tumbler for Drinkers Who Add Ice

Whisky product innovator Norlan is launching its newest product: the Rauk Heavy Tumbler. The international brand is dedicated to advancing the whisky drinking experience through products informed by design, science, and ritual. While the company’s original whisky glass was developed through fluid dynamics to reduce ethanol and enhance aroma delivery for purists who drink neat, the new tumbler was designed with two users in mind: those who prefer their whisky chilled with ice, and the adventurous crafted cocktail maker.

Taking its name from the Old Scottish word for “Rock,” the new Rauk Heavy Tumbler was developed by Icelandic designer and Norlan co-founder Sruli Recht. For whisky drinkers who prefer their spirit chilled in a heavy-bottom glass, the tumbler, weighing in at 575 grams, will delight. And for those who revel in the crafted cocktail, the tumbler features a core innovation. Inside the glass lies an array of extruded chevrons radiating from the center, which serve to provide friction points for gripping ingredients used in muddled drinks.

Circumventing the ornamentation of traditional cut crystal, the entire surface of the tumbler, inside and out, is born in a single blinding moment of machine-pressing the molten crystal into a complex five-part mold. Within this process, the plunger forms the multi-chevron cross-shaped extrusion inside the glass. The chevrons of this specific pattern evolved through dozens of design iterations in search of an elegant and ideal form to aid in the art of cocktail making while visually reinforcing the compass shape on the underside of the glass.

Glassmaking is a form of both alchemy and art, a process often at odds with the precise digital modeling at the disposal of today’s designer. While the tumbler’s base is precision-modeled as a three-dimensional form allowing the glass to rest on four crystal points as though it were floating, perfecting this in mass production is a more nuanced process.

Combining the thickness of the glass bottom with this particular base, along with the desired thinness of the rim, required numerous rounds of sampling and even in production necessitates a delicate balancing act of timing and intuition during the machine-pressing process to keep the tumbler from either cracking or sinking on its feet. “Creating not just another rocks glass is about the perversion of form,” says Recht. “We wanted to craft an object that excited not just the user, but us as well.”

The Rauk Heavy Tumbler is sold individually and retails for $50.

Spot-Not: A Decanter Cleaner that Works

All across the world there are tens of thousands of wine decanters begging to have the inside of the decanter cleaned and polished. But it was nearly impossible to properly dry and polish the inside of a decanter – until now!

Spot-Not is so easy to use and so effective. The Spot-Not decanter dryer and polisher has two main parts: a drying cloth that goes into the decanter and a drying mitt for the outside. Magnetic bands inserted in both parts draw the two together and as you move the outer mitt, the inside cloth moves along with it, drying and polishing the inside of the decanter. The magnet bands are removable so the two highly absorbent micro-fiber pads can be washed and reused. Decanters and carafes you were ashamed to serve are suddenly restored to being your pride and joy.

Spot-Not comes in retail-friendly packaging and master packs of 12, so it is really easy to buy. Spot-Not is a product of the Wine Lovers group, a consortium of professional-grade wine accessories.