Why We Named Our Colors After Places: The Story Behind Cote d'Azur, Fjord Mist, and Meadow

Every color starts with a place

Naming a color is a small decision that ends up saying a lot. We could have called our glassware "Blue," "Blue-Grey," and "Green." Instead, several of our Curated Sets carry the name of somewhere specific — Cote d'Azur, Fjord Mist, Meadow — because color, to us, is never just a hue. It's a mood borrowed from a place worth sitting still in for a while.

Cote d'Azur, Fjord Mist, and Meadow

Cote d'Azur takes its cue from the French Riviera — the particular clarity of blue that shows up where the Mediterranean meets the coastline, glass-clear and a little theatrical. It's the boldest of the three, meant for a table that wants some presence.

Fjord Mist looks the other direction. Inspired by the still water and quiet light of the Norwegian fjords, it sits in cool, misted blue-grey tones — built for a table that favors calm over noise.

Meadow is the warmest of the group, pulled from the soft green of an open field in late spring. It's the shade we hear about most from customers setting a table for something that isn't trying too hard — a Sunday brunch, a backyard dinner, an everyday glass of water that happens to look considered.

The rest of the collection

Those three are where the "place" naming is most literal, but the same instinct runs through the whole lineup. Palm and our newer Palm Beach carry a warm, tropical green through the collection. Seaglass is the hazy, sun-worn tone you find washed up on a shoreline. Air is barely a color at all — clear and quiet enough to disappear into whatever's already on the table. Iridium, Marble, and Pearl lean elemental rather than geographic, pulling from stone and light instead of a specific coastline. Ten shades in total, one instinct behind all of them: take something from the natural world worth a second look, and build a set around it.

A personal thread

Some of these names aren't abstract to us. We've stood at the edge of the water along the Cote d'Azur and watched that exact blue show up later in the glass. We've been to fjords quiet enough that Fjord Mist felt like the only honest name for the color. Naming a straw after a place we've actually traveled to is our way of keeping a little of that beauty on the table long after the trip ends — and remembering, every time we reach for one, why it's worth protecting in the first place. Every set we make, and every set a customer brings home, is a small, practical way of keeping single-use plastic out of places like these.

The same glass, whatever the shade

The naming is where the personality lives, but the substance underneath is identical across every color. Each straw is hand-finished borosilicate glass — BPA-free, taste-neutral, and non-reactive, so the color changes what's on your table, never what's in your glass. Every set is dishwasher safe and backed by our lifetime warranty.

Choosing between them usually comes down to which room, or which mood, you're setting the table for. That's the quiet logic of naming a color after a place: it gives you somewhere to picture yourself before you've even poured the drink. And we're already sketching the next few places to turn into shades, so think of this collection as the first chapter, not the whole story.

If Fjord Mist's quieter palette is calling to you, the Classic 8" Glass Straw Set in Fjord Mist is a good place to start.