Recently Bryan has been complaining that we have no matching drinking glasses in the house.
I guess it's true. Our glasses are a random mishmash of cups I had from college, whatever's left from our original set of glasses from our wedding (many have broken in the past 10+ years), and other fun cups I've picked up along the way.
I was inspired to start hunting for beakers to use as glasses after being inspired in multiple places. A local Boston restaurant used 400mL beakers as drinking glasses. Another famous and popular restaurant in New York used an Erlenmeyer flask as a decanter.
Many of you might know that in a past life, I was an organic chemist. I spent years in the lab with these guys. They are über familiar to me and I definitely have a soft spot in my heart for all this lab equipment.
Seriously, labware is so much more sturdy than kitchenware. These glasses are constantly washed in industrial dishwashers daily. They are exposed to all sorts of chemical and temperature changes - ice baths, bunsen burners, hot oil baths . . you name it.
Most lab glassware is made with borosilicate glass (boron oxide and silica), which is more resistant to thermal shock compared to other types of glass. You can subject it to more drastic temperature changes and it won't crack.
For some reason getting chemistry glassware really appealed to my inner nerd, and Bryan seemed to think it was cool too, so we ordered a bunch of stuff.
I was so surprised how much lab stuff Amazon sells! And the prices are pretty reasonable too.
Why spend $30-$200 on a fancy wine decanter when you can get a super functional, sturdy, and cool looking flask for only $14? You won't even feel bad if you break it (though they are pretty sturdy!).
I'm partly writing this post because I was surprised how many other people out there in the world are just like me - they love nerdy science stuff! When I posted a couple initial photos online, I got a huge response. Many people asked me where I got all this stuff, so I thought I would write this post to summarize it all.
Links to the Glassware I Bought
5 Piece Pyrex Graduated Beaker Set (measuring cups?)
400 mL Kimax Beakers (drinking glasses) without spout
400 mL Pyrex Beakers (drinking glasses) with spout*
1000 mL Erlenmeyer Flask
* I did not purchase this one. I was debating between spout or no spout. For now I got the ones without the spout, but I thought I would provide links to both
Initial Thoughts
So far, I'm loving my new glasses. The taller "Berzelius" style beakers work perfectly as drinking glasses. You can even measure how much you drink each time! I've put them through the dishwasher a few times and they are holding up quite well.
I haven't tried out the Erlenmeyer as a decanter yet, but I'll let you know how that goes!
I plan to use the graduated beakers as measuring cups. You can never have too many measuring cups when you're cooking or baking. Plus they nest pretty nicely (though the biggest one doesn't quite fit the other three as smoothly).
It's time to switch to metric!
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Disclaimer
If you purchased through any of the affiliate links within this post that lead to Amazon, I will get a small percentage of the proceeds.
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