For many people, summer means beer. That’s certainly how our reporter Ahiruneko sees it, and it’s not uncommon for him to pour a cold one after work most days to feel refreshed in the summer heat. So when he received a package from YO-HO Brewing, the makers of Japanese craft beer Yona Yona Ale, he was thrilled to see it contained a beautiful-looking beer glass, with a very unusual shape he’d never seen before.
▼ It’s called the “Yukkuri Beer Glass” (“Slowly Beer Glass”) in Japanese, or “The Slow Pace Glass” in English. Inspired by an hourglass, Yona Yona Ale created this special piece of glassware for a very unusual reason — to make it difficult to drink from. While that might seem counterintuitive to the whole drinking experience, it’s actually designed to benefit your health, because drinking slowly gives your liver time to process the alcohol effectively, which in turn reduces liver damage.
▼ As a frequent beer drinker, that sounded like good news to Ahiruneko, so he wasted no time in pouring himself a can of ale. While we say he wasted no time in pouring the ale, it took its sweet time to fill the glass, because the liquid dripped to the bottom at the speed of an hourglass. Feeling like an impatient driver sitting behind a car going at 40 kilometers an hour on the highway, Ahiruneko decided to embrace the slow life, patiently putting the brakes on his desires and sitting back to admire the beautiful, vivid amber color in front of him.
With his .