The good folks at Bass have designed one of the neatest pieces of barware I’ve seen since the muddler became a hit: Called the brolly (British slang for an umbrella), it’s a little gizmo designed specifically for making Black & Tans. (Black & Tan is pint glass half full of pale ale (typically Bass), with stout (typically Guinness) filling up the rest. The trick is keeping the two separate in the glass.)

Making a B&T at home usually means trying to dribble Guinness down onto a spoon so it slowly floats on the Bass, something which is nearly impossible to do unless you make these every day for a living.

Enter the brolly, a triangular wedge that attaches to the top of your pint glass. Just pour in the Bass, building up a nice head, then put the brolly on and pour the stout into it. Tiny holes on the sides ensure the stout is delivered to the top of the ale slowly enough to make it float perfectly. Even though my Guinness can was extra foamy, my results were dead-on perfect the first time out. (It’s tough to see in the photo below, which I realize looks like there’s far too much black and not enough tan, but the layer separation was exceptional in real life.)

Want one? If you live in California, send Bass a check for one dollar to the address on this page. Offer runs until April 30. If you ever plan to make even one Black & Tan in your life, this is a tool you definitely need in your bar. (Sorry folks, the box you see above is just a promo. You only get the brolly tool, which is pictured on top of it.)

I don’t anticipate I’ll be evaluating a whole lot of stemware on this blog, but I thought the Silhouette was just too interesting to pass up and I had to write about it.

Check out the picture below and you’ll immediately see what I mean: The Silhouette is a standard, large-sized wine glass (like a big Cabernet glass) with a scoop taken out of one side of the top. It looks strange, but listen: The idea is that it makes for a better “seal” around your nose when you inhale the fragrance of a wine. You place the scoop part around your mouth (the site shows it going under your nose but it worked better for me under the mouth entirely, but over the chin), forming a more complete enclosure so the wine’s vapors can’t escape. You thus get a fuller, more complete sense of the wine than you do with a regular glass, in theory at least.

I tried the Silhouette vs. a standard wine glass and the experience was interesting and unexpected. I hadn’t really thought of it before, but smelling wine in the regular glass was awkward, while the Silhouette felt quite natural. Side by side, I got a sense of the wine more quickly with the Silhouette than with the regular glass, though eventually I found they both provided the same aroma and bouquet. The Silhouette’s was just a bit stronger and faster to materialize. You can also read all about the company’s opinion of how it can best be used here.

The Silhouette has its challenges: It’s difficult to clean because you can’t set it upside down to dry, and it takes some explaining to people who see it and assume it’s a broken glass. (I worry the maid might try to throw it out someday…) Though it’s 24% leaded crystal, the glass is quite thick, too. That probably aids with sturdiness: At $54 each, you aren’t going to want to replace your Silhouette often. (That’s about on par with the most expensive Riedel glassware.)

This glass could make for a great gift for the wine enthusiast in your life, and it’s certainly a conversation piece. You may only want to invest in one or two for now… and be prepared to start explaining when he opens it as a Christmas gift.

$54 / greatestwineglass.com