Duralex Picardie

French schools, army canteens and roadside cafés have poured water into the same glass for seventy years. It stacks, it survives the dishwasher and it costs about three euro. It almost never breaks.

Duralex has made the Picardie in La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin since the company started in 1945. The glass is heated to six hundred degrees and cooled fast. That tempering gives it about twice the impact resistance of ordinary glass. Drop one on a tiled floor and it usually bounces. When a Duralex finally does give way, it holds back the long shards and breaks into small blunt pebbles. The tumbler nests inside its twin, moves from freezer to dishwasher, and carries the MADE IN FRANCE stamp on its base. The Museum of Modern Art keeps one in its collection.

A thin unbranded tumbler costs a euro or two. It chips at the rim, crazes in a hot dishwasher and shatters on the first hard knock. A household replaces a few every year without noticing the drip. A set of six Picardie costs about twenty euro at bol.com, roughly three euro a glass, and sits in the same drawer for a decade. Over ten years the cheap glasses cost more and cut your hand on the way out. You buy the Duralex set once.

Verdict: the cheapest glass in the cupboard is the one you never replace.