Three separate towels!?

[TwoTowels]

Somehow I got to adulthood without knowing about the necessity for dedicated glass towels. New OH is English and insists on them. Glassware is only to be dried with glass towels, NOT regular teatowels. Fair enough, it takes all the streaks off and all that.
But… my question, which he can't answer, is, why don't we just use the glass towels to dry everything, whether it's glass or not? Presumably that won't harm the other items.
He doesn't know the answer but still insists that glass towels are only for glasses.... so now I have to have three bleedin' towels hanging up in my tiny kitchen!!??

Please enlighten me!

We have a glass towel, but only use it for the best Riedel wine glasses (different shapes for different wines!).

For obvious reasons the glass towel doesn't get used all that often!

^ same here. Not sure many occasions are special enough for my fancy glasses or especially polishing said fancy glasses… maybe Christmas!

My OH is in charge of hand washing the glasses. He has glass drying towels, linen or non fluffy cotton. You can’t use the same tea towel for all items because the absorbency is different

my parents had two sort of towels, and my grandparents. And we are all English

I recall them from years ago, they were very thin with a thick stripe and the word GLASS written on them.

Like these

www.amazon.co.uk/Cotton-Cloth-Quality-Alternative-Towel/dp/B006CP6J8Y/ref=asc_df_B006CP6J8Y/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=214496216811&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2660133348255519922&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006964&hvtargid=pla-476004500527&psc=1

Does he work in a bar OP? Definitely not a thing I’ve ever come across in British homes.

I just use the dishwasher and maybe a bit of kitchen roll these days but I did use glass towels when I worked in bars years ago.

My dad uses normal tea towels to dry glasses after hand washing them and if you saw the state of them afterwards you would understand the attraction of glass towels!

I wash mine shake them Off a bit then stick them in the cupboard

I have these! I’m British - and fussy. Mine are microfibre I think and it’s because there is a little limescale drip on one side of every single glass from the washing machine which drives me mad.

normal tea towels also used to leave tiny bits of cotton on them.

I have heard of them. You keep them seperate to avoid transfer of grease etc from other crockery that would cause streaks on glassware.
Never used one, I have a dishwasher. Learned from my great grandmother who was in service.

Glass towels 🤣 never heard of them. English born n bred.

It’s a weird thing for his family not an English thing.

Definitely a thing but I remember them from childhood. They are cotton and non-fluffy. In our house they also doubled up as something to place over delicate items when ironing to avoid damaging the delicate fabric. I have no need for one in either context.

We were bought some for our anniversary and they were great and actually had. The word 'glass' on them. Have to say we used them on non glass items as well.

Never heard of them 🤷🏻‍♀️

My DD is Michelin trained glass and plate polisher ( back of front of house staff). Occasionally for really special occasions she will do it at home.
Linen tea towels marked glass for the glasses. Linen napkin dipped in a tiny bit of water contain white vinegar to polish plates. Cutlery also polished with white vinegar.

Did he used to work in a pub ?

All our glass wear is cheapy, chunky, La Rochere that gets shoved in the dishwasher so a glass cloth would probably be a bit overkill, though I could use one on my trifle bowl, JL has linen ones, a lot are cotton or microfibre, a lot of people had viewed and bought the JL ones today

Thanks all! Yes the third towel is for drying hands and yes I mean the linen glass cloths that have a stripe and the word "glass". So now I I know that these aren't absorbent I will save them just for polishing. We also have a dishwasher but it made even my Ikea glasses go cloudy after a while so I don't put my new ones in there! OH is definitely not posh! Father in the military and paternal grandmother was in service, so perhaps that's where the habit comes from. He does do washing up (and drying, AND… irons all the tea towels , glass cloths, kitchen hand towels and dish cloths (also at his own insistence!).
Incidentally he says kitchen towels will scratch glass (including mirrors and especially eyeglasses), just mentioning that as a few pp said they use those.

A mystery solved. Thanks again. x x

@greenhousegal Completely free on Saturdays?! What company/tariff are you with?

It occurs to me that the people who don't have to do all the work are very good at telling others how things should be done. So in my house, as I do 99% of this stuff, I do things the way I want ie the easiest and most efficient way for me. Of course others can do things how they want ....

When I was staying with a friend in Italy I noticed that their kitchen cupboards were bottomless (the ones hanging over the sink area) AND had things like plate racks built in, so they just washed the dishes and then put them straight into the cupboard! No drying up rack needed. I thought this was a great idea but then wondered if perhaps it only works in a very hot country.

Okay, apparently the so-called "dish drying cabinet" is a Finnish thing, so that answers my question about whether it only works in hot countries. Why don't we have these here?!?

I briefly worked as a silver service waitress in the 1970s. Heaven preserve you if you used anything other than a glass cloth on glasses.
For some other faux pas I committed, the head waiter threw a corkscrew at my head (I ducked and he missed).

😄I'm Scottish and never heard of face and arse towels!

I have heard of glass towels (although I used to work in a bar and had to shine the glasses with the glass towel and the bar towels (normal) were for everything else).

@TwoTowels
I am in ROI. Yes it's totally free to use from 8am to 11pm on Sat or Sun your choice. The tariff is a little higher during the week of course, but the Free Weekender works great for me. We are also getting €600 credit for Winter.

I've heard of it. Probably got some. I suspect they are moth eaten in the back of the cupboard.