Premium glassware company Riedel is no stranger to making specialty drinking glasses. Based in Austria, the Riedel family has been working with glass since the company’s inception in 1756 (as in before the United States was even an actual country). In the 2000s, Georg and Maximilian Riedel (the 10th and 11th generations) kicked it into overdrive on their work on wine varietal-specific glassware, a line that originated in the 1960s. From there, they expanded into beer style-specific glasses and now, they have unveiled their latest offering: cocktail-specific glasses.
While cocktail specific glasses are nothing new – a rocks glass is also called an Old Fashioned glass, after all – it’s the first time Riedel has gotten into the game.
Designed by Mixologist Zane Harris (who has previously worked at such cocktail havens as Dutch Kills, Maison Première, and Rob Roy), Riedel has released six in their line of glasses: Neat, Rocks, Highball, Nick & Nora, Sour, and Fizz.
The design of these glasses incorporates a few different elements, which the company says have not been considered together in glassware design by any glassmaker before. Not only were size and shape taken into consideration, but volume and capacity for ice as well. An example of this would be the fact that the Neat glass and the Rocks glass hold the same volume of liquid, but the Neat glass does not have the space for — all together now — ice. (If you got that right, pour yourself a whiskey, you winner, you.)
“Every Riedel series has resulted from our keen pulse on consumer tastes and a drive for constant innovation to meet these demands,” Riedel CEO and President Maximilian Riedel said in a statement. “Riedel Bar Drink Specific Glassware meets this need in the cocktails realm.”
In total, the company says that around 3,000 different cocktails can be made across the different glasses. The Sour glass, for example, is equipped to handle a whiskey sour just as it is a daiquiri. The Nick & Nora, on the other hand, is ready for a Martini, a Manhattan, or countless other stirred cocktails.
Each glass comes in a two-pack and retails for around $30. You can purchase the glasses here. A Riedel mixing glass is also available, and will run you around $60.
