...but in this month's issue of Bon Appétit, they have proclaimed that the punch bowl is BACK. Literally. Dear reader, recall that you heard it here first (never doubt me!) and that I have been proclaiming the social merits of the punch bowl forever. In my opinion, the punch bowl never left the party, so there is no reason to declare it back. And what say you? Will you jump on this bandwagon, or wait until it's too late and everyone has a punch bowl while your sideboard sits empty? What? You don't even have sideboard? Get thee to the furniture store!
Likewise, both Metropolitan Home and Bon Appétit have also professed a fondness for the coupe, the short, rounded champagne glass made popular by the media and at champagne fountains for ages. In legend, this small rounded glass was said to be shaped upon the breast of a variety of French noblewomen, including Marie Antoinette, Madame du Pompadour, the Countess du Barry and Diane de Poitiers. The idea being that suitors and admirers of said women could toast the beauty of their bosoms with glasses shaped on those very breasts and filled with the very best champagne. Notorious women all (mostly French, n'est-ce pas?), this legend is of course fantastical fiction, but a delicious idea.
Strangely, for years these same magazines and lifestyles guides has derided this traditional glass as second rate. The simple reason being that a tall, elegant flute preserves the all-important bubbles of sparkling wine longer. Suddenly, this doesn't matter and you can purchase coupes from Crate and Barrel or Baccarat. Am I tossing my lovingly collected set of mismatched flutes for a new set of coupes modeling on the breasts of decadent French aristocrats? Oh reader, I thought you knew me.
