The Norlan Whisky Glass
Jim Mcewan, master distiller from Bruichladdich distillery in Islay Described the glass as “fantastic, absolutely just great” noting that “the fact you can get your nose into the glass, and the little fins they’ve done the aeration. You can see it working their you can hear the sound of the waves, the aeration is good. It certainly brings the flavours out for sure” adding that he would certainly “use it professionally”.
Heather Green author of “Whisky Distilled” describes the glass as a combination of the “nosing and tasting and an old fashioned glass” adding that she “Got a lot of notes that she hadn’t gotten the first time, and she’d be excited to serve this in her house”.
Whisky is arguable the worlds best loved spirit and drinking it often an intimate sensory experience involving sight touch taste and most importantly smell, everyone drinks whisky differently and nearly everyone has a favourite glass which defines this special moment but we've discovered that none of these glasses help the spirit live up to its fullest potential.
Introducing Normal the glass that will change whisky, whisky is made up of a great many compounds some volatile ones are the ones we don't want in the glass so we have to aerate so we let these ones out so the ones we're left with are the more aromatic ones. Existing nosing glasses often concentrate the vapour in such a way that they tightly focus it causing the ethanol to punch you in the eyes, burn the nose and numb the tasting receptors. Another potential downside to using the nosing glass is that it changes the drinking experience to an antisocial activity whereby the head is tilted up and back cutting the drinker off from his (or her) social engagement preventing him (or her) from enjoying the dram to the fullest.
A traditional tumbler maintains a social drinking experience but all of the whisky aromatics are diffused and flattened out resulting in a much more diminished flavour, why wouldn't you want a glass that both optimises the taste and the experience of your high quality spirit? Existing whisky glasses come down to a compromise of good delivery of spirit and good looking design, we engineered a new type of whisky glass by mirroring a scientifically performing inside with an aesthetically beautiful outside.
I began designing the Norlan glass through a process of combining fluid dynamics modelling and biomimicry born out of the love of whisky and frustration with the glassware available. One day i was watching the waves and thinking about the glass and it hit me, we have to apply biomimicry techniques to copy the natural way the waves move inside the glass and create a standing wave effect when you swirl so as to add air into the fluid for massive optimisation.
I met Martin Hanczyc we got into a heavy conversation about the xxxx effect andf the rate of ethanol oxidisation to surface volume. Increasing the surface to air volume allows considerably more ethanol to evaporate. Distribution of molecules between the lower liquid phase and the upper phase in whisky is of critical importance for how a whisky tastes. The Norlan glass is specifically designed with these fins at the bottom or these protrusions which give a different quality to the whisky when you swirl it in the glass bringing up different types of molecules into the head space which give the whisky a fuller flavour.