What Is a Teku? And Why Is It The Best Beer Glass?

If you’re on the hunt for the perfect glass to hold any beer style, look no further: your new favorite is Teku glass.

For years, brewers and craft beer aficionados have used the Teku as their glass-of-choice. For instance, when Protagonist Brewing in Charlotte, North Carolina, opened the doors to their flagship location in 2019, the brewery served their beer exclusively from Teku glasses. The 14-ounce angular, stemmed glass was branded with Protagonist’s clean font and glyph codes (a nod to two of the three co-founders, who are in programming), which lead to five and eight ounce pour lines.

“While there’s nothing wrong with just drinking from the can or a shaker pint when you are hanging out with friends or at a cookout, the right glassware can take a beer from facilitating a great experience to being a great experience all its own,” says Aaron Gore, Director of Strategic Partnership with Community Brewing Ventures.

Since its creation in 2006 by two Italian beer experts, Teo Musso and Lorenzo “Kuaska” Dabove (from whom the name “Teku” was derived), the Teku glass has gained a cult following for good reason: it’s the ideal glass for any beer style.

Photography courtesy of John Paradiso

How The Teku Glass Enhances Aroma

Because of its tapered shape, the Teku glass allows volatile compounds to hit the nose just before the taste buds, resulting in enhanced perception.

“Aromas are a huge component of how we perceive flavor,” says Gore. “Teku has the perfect combination of a stem, wide-tapered bowl, and a flare along the lip to help maximize aroma.”

Rastal, the company behind the Teku glass, has been a glassware monolith since its 1919 inception. The glass itself was created by a sensory analyst who focused on the nose and the palate. It was designed, as Rastal says, “For the specific reason of improving the craft beer drinking experience.”

“If you think about [aroma] from a bourbon standpoint, we use Glencairn glasses to condense aroma to the top of the glass,” says Protagonist co-founder Mike Salzarulo. “Teku uses this same concept, though the glass is less curved and more angular, to create a similar experience specific to craft beer.”

The Teku Glass Is The World’s Most Functional Beer Glass

Photography courtesy of John Paradiso

As Gore says, “Teku has an ability to maximize head retention while keeping your beer at the appropriate serving temperature.”

Now on their third iteration of design, Rastal makes the Teku 3.0. The design of this version includes laser-etched nucleation points, allowing for the glass to facilitate consistent flow of carbonation. This keeps the beer at the proper carbonation level for maximum beverage integrity.

While shaker pints fulfill a utilitarian purpose, they don’t offer the same technology as a Teku. How often has a beer, by the time it makes its way to your table, become flat, the head roughly the depth of a coin? Likewise, how many times have you accidentally warmed up a shaker pint with your palms?

The Teku’s stem plays the same role it does in the wine or cocktail worlds. As long as you don’t grab the bowl, the Teku will keep your beverage at its intended temperature longer than any other glass.

Printing Full Color Wraps on The Teku Glass

Photography courtesy of John Paradiso

Especially juxtaposed with straight-sided can glasses and bulbous tulip glasses, the Teku has a certain elegance. When describing the glass, many fans get a far off, whimsical look, and they often speak with reverence.

The brewery apparel and glassware supplier eGrandstand is one of the few American companies with the multi-million dollar equipment necessary to print on tapered glass surfaces. The company, based in Lawrence, Kansas, provides many of the Teku glasses to the beer industry. They’re one of the few glasses on which eGrandstand prints a “full-wrap,” meaning that artists don’t need to limit their designs to spot illustrations, but can design on a band that runs around the entire glass. Thus, the elegant shape can be further augmented by a unique, eye catching design.

In fact, the Teku can be so eye-catching that it often inspires sticky fingers.

“Customers see a pretty glass and they take it with them,” Salzarulo says. The petty thefts might not seem like a big deal, but they quickly add up. Because of this, many area taprooms like Salud Cerveceria have stopped serving in the Teku. They might offer the Teku for purchase during special sales, but serve patrons in more utilitarian vessels.

When thinking of adding Teku to your at-home glassware entourage, 10/10 would recommend going about it honestly. If you’re looking for an elevated experience at home, whether drinking bottle-share style or cracking open a can of your go-to brew, Teku takes this experience and makes it magical. It may seem hyperbolic but having a lovely glass that enhances both flavor and visuals can have a huge impact on enjoyment.

Glasses worth stealing are clearly worth buying — and in some instances, even trading for many times their original value. And for good reason. While other styles of beer glass have come along, none of them add to the drinking experience as Teku.