Borgonovo

The first question with a jug is how much you want to be able to pour at once. A 0.25 litre jug is meant for a single place setting or for juice at breakfast and stands beside the plate rather than in the middle. A litre covers four to six glasses of water and is the size that suits most dining tables. The 2.8 litre Artic is a different kind of object: you fill it once and set it down for a group, though you will want to check whether it fits in your fridge door.

Then look at the pouring spout and the handle. A drawn-out spout cuts the stream cleanly, whereas a flat rim drips onto the tablecloth more readily. A lid, as on the 1.2 litre Igloo Quadra, keeps ice and mint in and dust out. For water jugs used in table service, it also matters whether the model is stackable, because cupboard space is always the bottleneck behind a bar.

Only fill a water jug with ice shortly before serving, otherwise the ice melts away in the jug and you are drinking diluted water halfway through the meal. Pour from about ten centimetres above the glass with the spout slightly tilted, so the stream stays narrow and nothing splashes. For the last few centimetres, turn the jug back up slowly to catch the drop on the rim.

The 1.8 litre pitcher is the size for mixing in bulk. Stir an Aperol Spritz or a Cuba Libre for six in the jug and then pour it over ice in the glass, so everyone can sit down at the same time. The 33 cl Tapper beer glass is a straight model with a slight waist: pour at an angle of forty-five degrees and bring the glass upright once you are two thirds of the way, and you get a two-finger head.

Borgonovo works mainly with pressed glass. That is glass pressed into a mould rather than blown, which makes the wall thicker and the rim sturdier than on thin blown crystal. You pay for that with a little more weight and a little less refinement at the drinking rim, but you get back a glass that survives a full dishwasher basket without rattling damage.

What you do need to watch is temperature difference. Boiling water in an ice-cold jug puts stress on the glass, and that is the most common cause of cracks. Let a jug from the fridge come up to room temperature first. Rinse after use with hot water and a glass brush right down to the base, because deposits linger in narrow jugs in particular.

If you want a pouring model that mainly stands behind the bar for beer and soft drinks, look at the pitchers, where the capacities start higher. If you would rather let wine breathe or present a spirit, the carafes suit you better. For the glass the water ends up in there is the tumblers category, and anyone wanting to extend the beer side will find the flutes, vases and steins that go with the Tapper among the beer glasses.