Duralex Gigogne Glass Tumbler

Duralex have made tempered glassware at La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin, just outside Orléans, since 1945, and every piece in the range still comes out of that one factory. The Gigogne is the smallest of their drinking glasses, holding 160ml.

What makes the glass hardwearing is the tempering, the process Duralex built the company on. Each finished piece is heated to around 700°C and then cooled quickly by ventilation, which locks controlled stresses into the body of the glass. That treatment leaves it at least two and a half times more resistant to mechanical stress than ordinary annealed glass, and able to withstand a thermal shock of at least 130°C. When one does eventually break, it collapses into small blunt fragments instead of long shards.

The range is named after the French word for nested, and the gentle taper of the sides is what earns it. One glass sits down inside the next, so a dozen take up little more cupboard space than three. At 71mm across and 69mm tall this is a short, heavy-based tumbler, the size that has been used for water and juice in French canteens and cafés for decades, and small enough to suit a child's hands. We stock the smallest glass in the range because it is the one that gets picked up most often in a kitchen.

The glass is soda-lime, made from sand, soda ash and limestone, and is lead-free, cadmium-free and fully recyclable. Manufactured within the EU, where labour law sets minimum standards for pay, working conditions, and holiday entitlement. Since July 2024 the factory has been a SCOP, a French worker-owned cooperative, so the people making the glass hold a direct stake in the business.

How to Care for Tempered Glassware

These tumblers are safe in the dishwasher, the microwave and the freezer, so ordinary washing is all that is usually needed. Let them cool and dry before stacking, because moisture trapped between two nested glasses can make them stick fast. If two do become wedged, stand the lower glass in warm water and pour a little cold water into the upper one, and the difference in expansion will release them. Tempering resists thermal shock but does not remove it, so avoid filling a glass with boiling water straight from the freezer. A chip along the rim weakens the tempering, and a chipped glass is worth retiring.

Material: tempered soda-lime glass
Capacity: 160ml
Diameter: 71mm
Height: 69mm
Dishwasher, microwave and freezer safe
Made in: France