Richard Brendon Rocks – The One Glass Everyone Should Own

Elite Traveler’s drinks columnist talks us through her favorite crystal. 

My kitchen shelves bristle with vintage coupes, Nick & Noras, highballs, copitas, shot glasses and cut-glass rocks; I own stemware for Champagne through to port and Riesling, Burgundy and Bordeaux.

It’s a professional hazard, partly. But the quest for the perfect glass is also something I’ve always rather enjoyed. Lately, though, my collection has taken on unmanageable proportions. Time, I realised, for a cull.

I took a long, hard look at which glasses I loved, and used, the most – and to my surprise, one that came out on top was an unassuming-looking cocktail rocks glass by British designer Richard Brendon.

You may be familiar with Brendon’s work already – he’s perhaps best known for his collection with wine critic and author Jancis Robinson MW, which includes an elegant one-size-fits-all wine glass that’s used by London restaurants such as Clove Club, Chez Bruce, Noble Rot, and Union Square Hospitality restaurants in New York. He also does some fantastic barware – his chunky fluted and diamond old fashioned tumblers are favorites in our house.

The cocktail rocks glass is more understated – in fact, it’s so simple I rather overlooked it at first. Its beauty snuck up on me, slowly. And now I reach for it virtually every day.

Its clean, crisp lines and fine 0.05-in rim have a way of elevating almost any drink, from a simple glug of water to a dram of whisky or an ice-filled negroni. It makes an aperitivo look chic, an old fashioned feel modern; a margarita taste wonderfully crisp. I also love it for martinis on the rocks – with a few olives thrown in – while I’m cooking dinner.

At just three inches high, it looks like it wouldn’t have the capacity for cocktails on the rocks. But it actually holds 9.9 oz, or exactly the same as the aforementioned Brendon old fashioneds.

It also refracts the light most beautifully, through a sip of whisky or rum. Mouth-blown in lead-free crystal, it’s light enough to hold by your fingertips, but still has enough heft to make you use it with intention.

Its modest, almost utilitarian look suits spritzes and ice-cold beer, too. There are even some elbows-on-the-table kinds of wines that feel at home in it.

You can put it in the dishwasher or the freezer. It can do dinner party or mid-week. And its conical shape means it even stacks – so it’s perfect for storage-poor glass addicts like me.

“I designed it coming off the back of the Jancis Robinson collection, when I was getting really seriously into function being the main driver of the design,” says Brendon. “We wanted the rim to be so fine it doesn’t distract from the liquid you are drinking.”

The slightly tapering shape, he says, was inspired “by Edwardian glassware, and particularly the lovely conical juice glasses they used to make. The Edwardian era is just this really lovely period of glassmaking when things became more refined and stripped back, after the Victorian era when things were rather fussy and ornate.”

There are other tumbler designs that look similar – at least to the untrained eye. But as any real glassware fiend will know, the devil is in the detail. And there’s something truly beautiful, I think, in a glass that’s so versatile. In the case of this particular one, that old adage holds: less is more.

Richard Brendon Cocktail Rocks Glass, £50 for two (approx. $66) from richardbrendon.com

If you can’t stick to one, here are three other great glasses for cocktails on the rocks:

Bar/Giana x Nude Short Cocktail Glass

A generous goblet-like glass designed by one of the top dogs at The Bar at The Connaught – great for spritzes, G&Ts and long, refreshing drinks over ice.

€54 (approx. $63) for six, nudeglass.com

Kimura Kikatsu 0701 Tumbler

This Japanese company’s exquisite paper-thin glassware is used several of the world’s best bars – it’s hair-raisingly fragile, though, so perhaps put away if you’re throwing a party.

$46 each, kimuraglass.com

Lobmeyr Neo Enamel Hand-painted Crystal Tumbler

Part of a set of beautiful, hand-painted tumblers from Vienna’s famous artisans Lobmeyr, who have been mouth-blowing fine crystal for more than 200 years.

$245 each, abask.com