Enjoying a dram of really rare whisky is not an occasion a man should take lightly.
The ambience, the company, the accoutrement — no detail should be overlooked. Starting with the vessel that will convey that whisky from bottle to maw. We submit: the Norlan Whisky Glass, a new-to-Kickstarter tumbler some one-and-a-half years, 90 design iterations, and at least three dozen prototypes in the making.
Don’t let the minimal aesthetics fool you. The team behind the Norlan — fronted by Reykjavik-based designer Sruli Recht — left no stone unturned. Their credo: “How do we take the scent delivery of a nosing glass and combine it with a modernized tumbler shape?” Through trial and error (and a bit of consulting with master distillers in Scotland), they improved the common whisky glass’s aeration properties via the application of protrusions at the glass’s base.
Those clover-looking protrusions allow the liquid inside to swirl in a wave shape, thereby increasing its surface-to-air ratio and rate of oxidation, which in turn releases more ethanol. It’s a vital feature to the Norlan, as A) the process yields top-notch spirit expression, and B) no other glass out there does it. Elsewhere: a double-wall hand-blown frame enhances visibility and coloration while shielding the swill from your hand’s heat, and a less acute sipping angle allows a man to take in the whisky’s scent fully without losing eye contact with his company — the mark of any true gentleman’s glass.
Already funded on Kickstarter, Norlan’s early bird specials are going fast. Get yours here.
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