Sunnylife

The difference between the two lies in their shape. The highball glasses are tall and straight, intended for anything topped up with ice, tonic, or soft drinks. The glass set is mixed, so you are more likely to purchase it if you have nothing yet and want to be able to set a table all at once.

Both come in sets of four, a deliberate size for outdoor use: four suits a table or a sun lounger, not a dinner. If you want more, order two sets, since the shapes are identical and continue to match. Pay extra attention to capacity with plastic. A glass that looks spacious in the photo will fill up faster than you think with four ice cubes, so allow for half ice when making mixed drinks. For comparison, all the glass sets are shown together, and the tall models with the highball glasses.

These glasses are made for drinks you sip slowly in the sun. A pina colada belongs in the tall glass, with crushed ice so it stays cold for as long as you take to drink it. For an aperol spritz fill the glass completely with ice first, then pour in the prosecco last along the side of the glass.

Since there are no shards to worry about, you can also serve mocktails to everyone joining you, children included. That saves you from needing a second type of glass on the table. What you should avoid is heat: no boiling water, no hot punch, and no hottest dishwasher setting. Also, don't leave a glass filled in direct sunlight for hours, because the drink will warm up faster than it would in thick-walled glass.

With coloured plastic, two things determine how long it lasts. The first is scratching: a scouring pad or sand from a beach bag makes the wall dull, and that cannot be undone. So wash with a soft cloth, warm water and a mild detergent, and dry with a tea towel instead of leaving the glass standing on rough stone.

The second is sunlight. Colour in plastic fades if the glass lies outside in the sun for months on end, so store the set indoors after the summer. In the dishwasher, the top rack on a low programme is fine; hotter than that can distort the shape and leave the glasses standing crooked.

Looking for unbreakable glassware with a more neutral shape? All the plastic models are grouped under unbreakable glasses. If you want to continue with color, but in real glass, that is a category of its own: under colored glasses you will find, among other things, pressed and smoked glass in shades that suit a set table. And if you already have the glasses but still lack the tools, start with the cocktail shakers, where shakers, jiggers, and muddlers are grouped together.