Let me just say this: I didn’t think I needed a special beer glass. I’ve had good beer from mugs, cans, even straight from the bottle at a barbecue. But when I came across Nendo’s new creation for Sapporo’s KURO LABEL, I stopped scrolling. Something about it made me pause, not just the look of the glass, but the idea behind it. This isn’t just another sleek, over-designed object with a nice backstory. It’s kind of weird. One side curves in, another bulges out, and the front and back are flat like any other glass. It almost looks… wrong. But then you read the intention, and it all clicks.
Sapporo’s KURO LABEL isn’t just a beer with a clean finish. It’s a beer known for changing as you drink it. First sip, middle, last, each with its own flavor profile. That sounds like beer marketing fluff until you actually try to design for it. And that’s exactly what Nendo set out to do.
What Nendo has made is more than a vessel, it’s a tool for tasting. Drink from the straight side, and the beer rushes down your tongue, clean and fast. Turn it to the curved-in side, and you’re suddenly hit with more aroma, more warmth, more of the beer’s “middle.” The bulbous side? That one’s all about slowing you down, hitting the center of the tongue and making you notice what’s happening.
What I love is that this glass makes you turn it in your hand. It asks you to think just for a second about what you’re doing. Not in a pretentious way, but in the same way a good record makes you want to listen closely, or a handmade chair makes you sit a little differently. It’s subtle. But it’s there.
