La Rochere Troquet

All four versions hold 23 centilitres, so the choice comes down to looks and to how the glass sits in your hand. Facettes catches the most light and stands out by candlelight. Geo is calmer and suits a crisply laid table. Amande feels the softest because the curve carries on under your fingers, and Jeux is the least predictable and sits well among other glassware. Watch the quantities too: the single designs come in sixes, the assorted set in fours. If you want to add to them, look through the other tumbler glasses.

Twenty-three centilitres is the size of a glass of water with dinner, a small beer or a soft drink over ice. Fill to two fingers below the rim and you are left with about twenty centilitres, with nothing slopping over as the glass is passed around. The wide base also makes the Troquet usable as a serving glass for a short cocktail over ice, such as a Negroni or an Old Fashioned that you stir in the glass itself with a bar spoon. For beer, 23 centilitres is on the tight side, unless you are serving a strong beer in small measures.

La Rochère presses this glass in French moulds rather than blowing it, which gives a thicker wall and a heavier base. That makes the Troquet less prone to damage at the rim than a fine-walled glass, and it can go straight into the dishwasher. Place the glasses apart in the rack, because relief glass that knocks against other glass wears precisely on the raised parts.

If you are after the same pressed, faintly old-fashioned look but in stemware, carafes or tall glasses, browse the rest of La Rochère. If the look matters more to you than the brand, you will find comparable work in the wider selection of vintage glasses. And if what you really want is a sturdy, unobtrusive glass for water on a laid table, the water glasses are closer to what you are looking for than this series.