Strat Haul: These Water Glasses Are the Best Things I Bought in 2017

If you’ve read any of our Strategist editor hauls this year, you’ll know that we buy a lot of stuff, and even though we think carefully about each thing that goes in our cart, there are still standouts. To close out the year, we’re asking each editor to write about the best thing they bought. First up, deputy editor Jason Chen on the Bormioli glasses he absolutely loves.

Bormioli glasses first came on my radar after noted tasteful person Joanna Goddard recommended the tumblers in her What I Can’t Live Without. She called the smallest size charming and light: “Whenever my husband and I drink wine from these glasses at home, I feel like we’re transported to a little bar in Barcelona.” Well, guess what? I bought them, and they’re too damn small.

Immediately, I traded them in for the next size up (they’re the middle ones in the photo above, rather than the ones on the right), and they are just muah — perfect for an iced coffee or a limey vodka-soda or just cucumber water (designer Katrina Hernandez likes them, too). When I feel sick and need to pop a Berocca, there’s no glass that feels quite as clinically efficient in the hand.

What’s truly great about the glasses, though, is how sturdy yet elegant they are. I broke all four of my thin-edged Alessi glasses over two years simply by tossing a dirty knife or spoon into a sink, but never worry about doing the same to the Bormiolis. (That the wide base makes them a cinch to clean is a bonus, too.) Maybe Goddard is right; the smaller ones are probably better for wine or snacks, but that just isn’t quite how I’m ready to use a tumbler yet. Maybe one day, I’ll get to be that continental.