Bormioli Rocco

The Bodega is the best-known glass in the house and straight away the simplest choice. It is tempered, stackable, thick-walled and available in 22 cl for water and coffee and in 35 and 50 cl for beer, all in the same recognisable shape. If you want one range that fits equally well in a café, a kitchen and a garden, that is usually where the search ends.

If you want something with more character, that sits in the design ranges. Line and Diamond have a ribbed or facet-cut wall that catches the light, America'20s has the heavy hexagonal foot of the twenties, and Novecento supplies a nick and nora of 15.5 cl for anyone serving cocktails without ice. Tre Sensi and Premium are the lines for wine and champagne, with flutes from 15 to 26 cl and bowls thinner than you would expect from this house. For the low, straight model in other brands, look at the tumblers, where everything is sorted by size.

The strength of this house is that one range plays several parts. A 22 cl Bodega passes just as easily as a water glass as it does for a cappuccino or a small beer, and that is exactly why it turns up so often in the Italian bar. The larger sizes of 35 and 50 cl are used there as beer glasses, without a head of foam but with a thick rim that can take anything.

For cocktails there are two extremes. The America'20s gin and tonic glass of 74 cl is meant to be filled generously with ice and botanicals, after which you top it up with tonic. At the other end stands the small bowl for a dry martini, which you serve cold and without ice. If you are somewhere in between, an aperol spritz in a roomy bowl is the recipe that reaches Italian tables most often.

Tempered glass is strong against knocks but sensitive to sudden changes in temperature. So do not pour boiling coffee into a glass that has just come out of the fridge, and do not fill a glass with ice straight away when it comes warm out of the dishwasher, because it is exactly that difference that puts stress on the wall.

Never force stackable models like the Bodega into one another. If two glasses do get stuck, stand the lower one in warm water and pour cold water into the upper one, and they will come apart by themselves. Beyond that, almost everything in this collection can go in the dishwasher on a short programme. A dull haze is usually limescale from hard water and disappears with a dash of vinegar in the rinsing water.

If you are mainly after beer glasses, the Bodega sizes are listed together with the other brands under the beer glasses. If you want the wide, shallow bowl for bubbles or for a cocktail without ice, you will find it with the champagne coupe glasses. If you would rather search by shape than by brand, every house is sorted by bowl and capacity in the menu alongside. And if your glassware is in order but you are missing the tools to mix with, shakers, strainers and jiggers are with the cocktail shakers.