If you are a bartender, hopefully you have had the chance to experience one of the many “cocktail weeks” happening all over the world in the last 5 years. If you have attended any of these, you have almost certainly heard the phrase: “We drink with our eyes first.” While at first you might look at the colour of a cocktail. The clarity or opaqueness. The garnish. How much time though, do you spend looking at what is actually holding that cocktail? We are talking glassware!
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While a lot of time is spent considering the melange of flavours and the balance of cocktails, often the glassware becomes an afterthought. Simply “up, on rocks or tall” are the options we think of. Orrefors Kosta Boda will change the way you look (literally) at your glassware.
For more than two and half centuries Orrefors has been making handblown glassware in Sweden. Amongst lush pine forests and crystalline lakes you will find Orrefors. Since the 1700s there has been a furnace burning, shaping iron initially but now elegant glass pieces of artwork, created just to hold your drink. Appreciated by such design legends as Karl Lagerfeld, all glass from Orrefors aims for the highest possible quality and flawless design. Orrefors represents Scandinavian design and quality combined with contemporary style.
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Not far from Orrefors is another long burning furnace. In the village of Kosta, during what in Sweden is known as the Age of Freedom, Kosta Boda glassworks was founded. While Kosta Boda designs are bold and sometimes playful, they will fit right into your bar. Collected by museums worldwide, Kosta Boda glassware has its own personality, and will share some of that personality with the creation inside the glass.
Using the proper glassware can help make or break a cocktail. Here are some of our suggestions for how to use these beautiful glasses.
Intermezzo Snifter: While you might traditionally associate this shape of glass with Belgian beers, this is a beautiful shape for any kind of classic sour cocktail as well. Whiskey Sours and Classic Fizzes would all be right at home in this glass.
Gin and Tonic: For the last 5-10 years this balloon shaped glass has become ubiquitous when ordering a Gin & Tonic in Spain. The idea has crossed borders and you will now see this glass being used in many cities around the world. Beyond the Spanish style Gin & Tonic this glass would make a great vessel for any kind of spritz or sangria.
Cocktail Avantgarde: For this glass we recommend any straight up drink you might choose. This elegant extension of a traditional cocktail coupe will make your Sidecar or Toronto Cocktail really stand out amongst a sea of other vintage glassware.
City DOF: Add definition to your Negroni or your Boulevardier. These eye catching slashes don’t, at first, seem to follow any repeating pattern, but as you get to the bottom of the drink, it will all start to make sense.
Street Martini: This vintage design has been amped up by some sharp angles. Your Martini should taste as strong as this impactful design.
Peak Highball: Feeling Tropical? This collins glass is just the right size and shape for your Fog Cutter or Three Dots and A Dash. The peaked designs are reminiscent of the mugs from Tiki Bars past, so why not embrace this elegant upgrade?
Erik OF: No need for juice here. This glass calls for the spirit forward classic it was named for. And Old Fashioned would sit nicely in the rounded, heavy bottomed glass.
Intermezzo Flute: While at this point in drinking culture most people have adopted the coupette as the glass to drink Champagne from, the flute still holds its own as the best way to consume a French 75 or an Aperitivo Spritz.
Each and all of these Orrefors Kosta Boda pieces are available at William Ashley in Canada and all over the world from the Orrefors Kosta Boda website.
Post in collaboration with Orrefors Kosta Boda North America. Please drink responsibly.