Before Barbara introduced me to cosmos, I had no experience with cocktail glasses. No one I hung around with drank cocktails (beer, wine, gin and tonics yes, but no martinis or cosmos). I didn't even own any cocktail glasses. I had never seen cocktail glasses in use in a party situation, had never washed one, had never put one down on the table and then turned to pick up the remote. So I had no idea they were disposable.
Barbara and I together go through about 8 glasses a year. After I knew they were fragile but before I realized how much, I bought Barbara a pair of beautiful German crystal stained-glass-looking glasses that reminded me of other glasses of hers that we had broken. They were $48 each. I found and bought the exact ones for a lot less than that on eBay, but the point is that within about two months $100 worth of glasses was history. Now that I know better, I don't like to pay more than $2 a glass. My sister Carol found some nice ones at the Salvation Army for a buck a piece (she bought six and two years later there are five left, some kind of record). I recently got four at the same price at Fishs Eddy (great place; I went to the store, but the website is fishseddy.com). Barbara had some nice striped ones (gone) and ones decorated with fish (gone).
Certainly we could start using stem-less cocktail glasses. (I had one last week at Tabla, Danny Meyer's "new Indian" restaurant on Madison Square Park. Loved the food, but the cosmo was the lemonade-y kind, and the stem-less glass didn't help.) But I'd rather not. It's not all about the glass, but it's a lot about the glass, which was reinforced last summer when Barbara brought a thermos full of cosmos when we visited my sister in the hospital. We drank them from paper cups, and it just wasn't the same.
So the glasses are a necessary evil. As long as we are drinking cosmos, there will be a string of broken cocktail glasses. May they rest in pieces.
9 comments:
I think Barb served me a cosmo in a fancy glass and I asked her to pour it into a glass I wouldn't feel bad breaking. On the other hand, nice glasses are an evil necessity- an ice cold cosmo tastes so much colder against a thin glass edge. I used to like my large cosmo glass (martini shape)but realized the small ones I had were actually better- each serving stays cold all the way through. I can EASILY make a second. These glasses cost me $10 a piece in a fancy home store. I did see some realy neat stainless steel martini glasses- but I didn't get them. I may reconsider. They had a nice thin edge too. Okay, all this talk about glasses... I'm feeling a thirst coming on...
Well, if you get your glasses at LensCrafters you can have them replaced for free or adjusted as needed. One note, however: they don't really hold very much, and the twin handles are all but USELESS!!
Also, they're expensive!
Hi WhoopsyD, I agree 100% on the small glass vs. large for the reasons mentioned. I saw stainless steel martini glasses in an upscale outdoorsy catalog and thought they were bizarre, but they may be just the thing. Unbreakable, and they'll keep the drink cold. Barbara and I may need to get some for research purposes. Thanks for commenting. --Mary
Hi Brian,
If LensCrafter were in the martini glass business, they'd last a week with a policy like that! Thanks for reading and commenting. -- mary
A stemless martini glass is a disappointment. A stemmed glass is sophisticated and sexy--and it builds anticipation, don't you think? Great glass, good color (not too pink) keeps me going...the perfect build up to that ice cold cosmo.
Those ss martini glasses could just do the trick.
Barbara and I are torn on the SS glasses. Barbara just said, "It reminds me of a canteen. Don't you need to see the drink?" Maybe. We're going to get some and try them out.
xom
I'd get the SS for friends who have a higher than normal breakage rate. Or for times when you're outside and kids and balls are present. Yes, part of the joy of a cosmo is the lovely color. Darn, every time I come here I have to go get one!!!
I have a vivid memory of a formal family dinner back in the 1950s. My parents had just returned from Europe bearing several types of hand-blown Viennese glassware. There were tiny, etched, amethyst-colored cordial glasses (I have those) and enormous amber cut-glass goblets (one of my sisters has those), but the most beautiful were ruby-colored, cut and etched wine glasses on long, cut-and-etched stems.
My parents set them on the table for their guests and filled them. One after the other guests lifted them...and the tops tumbled off like heads into a guillotine basket. What's that they say about beauty being a fleeting thing?
That sounds like something out of Alice in Wonderland -- a very "off with their heads" moment, very Red Queen. Love it.
mg
Post a Comment