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Crucial Detail

Crucial Detail is an award-winning design studio founded by Martin Kastner. For over a decade, Cruci

11/27/2025

BFCM 2025 - Enjoy 20% off the entire store.
Whether looking for Glassware, Ona Wine Sleeve, the Porthole, or our Christmas Ornaments, our BFCM special pricing is automatically calculated at checkout.
Limited time only.

11/24/2025

Life is better in color

09/11/2025

Want to take your pancakes to the next level?
Infused syrups are an easy way to experiment with flavors—sweet, fruity, herbal, you name it.

Drizzle over pancakes, mix into cocktails, splash in tea, or fizz with sparkling water. Add your spin to this truly versatile starter recipe.

Ingredients for heavy syrup:
2 parts sugar by weight
1 part water by weight

Ingredients for light syrup:
1 part sugar by weight
1 part water by weight

Instructions:
• Pour water and sugar into a saucepan.
• Bring water to a boil, stirring constantly.
• Once sugar is dissolved completely, remove pan from heat immediately and set aside to cool.
• Note: Boiling syrup for an extended period of time will thicken it.
• Once syrup has cooled, arrange your desired infusion ingredients in the Porthole.
• Close the Porthole, tighten screw, and check the seal for good contact on both sides.
• Transfer syrup into the assembled Porthole through the spout.
• Allow to infuse at least 24 hours in a refrigerator. Infusion times will vary with ingredients.

Light syrup tip:
Light simple syrup can be made without adding heat. Combine equal parts, 1:1, sugar and water in a bottle and shake until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Tips:
• Only use a filter screen if infusion ingredients can pass through the spout, otherwise leave out for faster filling and dispensing.
• Leave an inch of space at the top when filling the Porthole with syrup.
• Do not immediately insert the stopper in the spout so ingredients can settle and expand.
• Refrigerate when not in use. Remove stopper when not in the refrigerator.
• In place of the recipes above, you can also infuse honey, maple, or agave syrups.
• To extend the life of your syrup, add a tablespoon of vodka to your infusion.

09/09/2025

We were delighted to spot the Ona in the Uncorked section of the latest Imbibe Magazine: the James Beard Award–winning magazine that sets the standard for stories on how we drink, gather, and share.

Their editors included it in “A Few of Our Favorite Things,” calling it “as much a work of modern art as it is a practical way to keep your wine cold.”

It’s always encouraging to see thoughtful design recognized in this way. Thank you, Imbibe, for the kind mention.

09/03/2025

In its original recipe, the Martinez is built with a larger measure of sweet vermouth than gin. This curiosity serves as an interesting example of how ingredients change over time. What may have tasted good then is far too cloying with today's ingredients, leading the proportions of gin to vermouth to evolve to what it is today.

Modern recipes for the Martinez often call for Old Tom gin, a spirit that has been sweetened with sugar. We prefer to 'buy back' control over the drink's sweetness by using a traditional (which is to say: unsweetened) gin, and adding in the sweetness ourselves.

2 oz gin
¾ oz sweet vermouth
1 barspoon maraschino liqueur
a dash Angostura Aromatic Bitters
1 dash orange bitters
1 fresh lemon peel, removed with a peeler

Combine all ingredients (except the lemon peel) with ice in a cocktail mixing glass. Stir until chilled and diluted, then strain into a chilled coupe glass. Express the lemon peel over the cocktail, then discard the peel.

08/29/2025

Cheers to the weekend!

The handsome, substantial form and wide, open rim of the Sling glass make it ideal for short drinks—whether neat or on the rocks—by softening the alcohol’s bite and elevating the subtler, more complex aromas for a truly immersive olfactory experience.

Originally created as a custom glass for the Slingshot cocktail presentation at the Aviary in Chicago, the Sling glass holds its own even without the dramatic flair.

• hand-blown glass
• 3" height, 3-1/2" diameter
• 8.5oz (255ml) volume

08/18/2025

Arboretum, perfect for sharing.

08/12/2025

Oxymel. A mix of vinegar and honey. One doesn’t need to believe it to be the cure-all tonic the ancient Greeks and Romans believed it to be in order to enjoy it. It’s conducive to infusions that can range from fruity to herbaceous, it’s quite simple to make, and has a variety of applications even making its way into the cocktail culture.

The base is straightforward. Equal parts vinegar and honey by volume. In other words half acid, half sugar. For this specific recipe, we prepared an Oleo Saccharum and reduced the subsequent amount of honey by the weight of sugar. We don’t like to waste goodness so also we reduced the amount of vinegar by the amount of juice we could squeeze out of the lemons peeled, maintaining the 1:1 sugar to acid ratio. If you want to experiment further, 15g (1/2oz) of Turmeric Root slices or a teaspoon of Peppercorns are a good place to start.
Whether you add oxymel to tea, use in grog, mix with rye whiskey, use in place of syrup with water hot or cold, it makes for a nice wintertime home companion.

YOU WILL NEED:
125g (½ cup) apple cider vinegar
3 lemons
60g (¼ cup) sugar
1 ginger root, peeled and cut into matchsticks
2 cinnamon sticks
175g (½ cup) Honey

INSTRUCTIONS:
• Using a vegetable peeler, remove long strips of zest from the lemons and remove as much white pith as possible.
• Juice lemons and strain juice. Pulp will block the Porthole screen if not removed.
• Combine zest strips with sugar. Muddle or rub the mixture together with your fingers until aromatic. This will start the process of extracting the lemon oils, flavoring and coloring the sugar and the resulting oxymel.
• Arrange ginger and cinnamon in the Porthole.
• Transfer the lemon zest & sugar mixture (Oleo Saccharum) mix to the Porthole.
• Close the Porthole, checking the seal for good contact on both sides.
• Let sit for 1 hour or more, occasionally shaking (with stopper inserted). You will see oils being expelled from the zest.
• Add the cider vinegar and honey to lemon juice, and stir well until homogenous.
• Transfer liquid mix into the assembled Porthole through the spout.
• Insert stopper and periodically shake until the sugar is well dissolved.

08/01/2025

The Champagne Cocktail is classically made using cognac, though any brandy can work just as well here. This recipe uses a cherry brandy because we find this drink to be a good vessel for American or fruit brandies, and also because it seems a sensible pairing with the maraschino cherry that garnishes the drink.

One may wonder why a sugar cube is employed in this beverage (rather than a measure of demerara syrup, which would dissolve much more easily). Its presence is purely aesthetic; the rough surface of the cube offers an easy place for bubbles to form, leading the drink to visibly "sparkle". The cube offers almost no sweetening function and - consequently - the cocktail itself is quite dry.

1 raw sugar cube
3 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters
1 maraschino cherry
¾ oz cherry brandy
5 oz champagne or dry sparkling wine, very cold
1 fresh orange peel, removed with a peeler

Place the sugar cube on a small plate, and dash with Angostura to thoroughly soak it. Using a bar spoon, lift the cube to drain it of excess bitters, then transfer it into a chilled tall cocktail glass. Add the maraschino cherry to the glass, followed by the brandy. Gently pour in the chilled champagne. Express the orange peel over the cocktail, then discard the peel.

07/31/2025

Arboretum - Designed for sharing.
Available now!

07/28/2025

Lemon Sake Ponzu

A bright, mouth-watering ponzu that's equally delicious in a Whiskey Sour or mixed with sparkling water!

First, make an Oleo Saccharum:
Using a vegetable peeler, remove the peel from 3 lemons, trying to remove as little pith as possible. Juice the lemons, and set the juice aside for a moment.

Combine the peels with 110g (½ cup) sugar in a bowl. Toss the peels to totally cover them with the sugar, rubbing them to help begin releasing the peels' essential oils.

Inside the Porthole:
Transfer the Oleo Saccharum mixture to the Porthole
Close the Porthole, checking the seal for good contact on both sides.
Let sit for 1 hour or more, occasionally shaking (with stopper inserted).
Liquid to be Added:
113g (½ cup) rice wine vinegar
160g (¾ cup) lemon juice, about 3 lemons worth, strained to remove pulp
113g (½ cup) Sake

Strain the reserved lemon juice to remove any pulp. Add the rice wine vinegar and sake to lemon juice, stirring to combine. Transfer the liquid mix into the assembled Porthole through the spout. Insert the stopper and shake until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Allow the mixture to infuse at least 1 hour, periodically toggling the Porthole. You can allow the infusion to continue for several months.

- Using the ponzu -
Ponzu Sour:
To a small glass, add 1 oz Japanese Whiskey, 1 oz infused ponzu, 1/8 tsp soy sauce and ice, stirring to combine.

Ponzu Sparkle:
Combine a portion of the infused ponzu with a splash of sparkling water over ice.

07/25/2025

Our glassware is hand-made at a historic glassworks in the mountains of northern Bohemia. More than 300 years of continuous operation, combining skilled craftsmanship, tradition, and creativity is put to work on our designs.

First, the glass is blown into a steel mold and begins to take shape.

Once the glass is formed, it is scored at the level of the rim. It is then placed under a flame where it breaks precisely at the score line.

Next, sanding the lip smooth and inspecting the piece before it moves on to flame polishing.

Available in 4oz and 7oz. Only from Crucial Detail.

Address

Chicago, IL

Telephone

+17736978243

Website

http://crucialdetail.com/

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Multi-disciplinary Design

Crucial Detail is an award-winning design studio founded by Martin Kastner. For more than a decade, Crucial Detail has explored the synergy of food and design, working at the forefront of fine dining in collaborations with the world's best chefs.

In addition to being named by The Future Laboratory as one of the world's 100 most influential designers, Kastner and Crucial Detail received a Global Innovation Award for Best Product Design for the Porthole, and Book Design of the Year Award for the Alinea book. In 2015 and 2017, Crucial Detail was instrumental in Team USA's historic silver and gold wins at the world's most prestigious culinary competition, Bocuse d'Or. A selection of Crucial Detail designs is now available for purchase to the public in our web shop.