Is crystal glass safe?

Depends how much punch you drink. It kills faster than leaded chrystal. The latter is lethal, too, though the effect goes usually unnoticed the first couple of hundread years.

When the inner surface of your glass turns matt, it tells that lead has been dissolved.

-lauri

tsj wrote:

If you drink from it you have little to worry about. If you keep alcoholic fluids in crystal vessels for long periods, then there can be some migration of lead into the fluid. In other words, use decanters for immediate use and not for long-term storage.

That's assuming that the crystal is lead crystal and not something just calling itself "crystal".

I have some 32 year old scotch sealed in lead crystal decanters for over

It might be worth your while having the lead content of the scotch checked, should you ever open it. That sounds like it's for buying and selling, not for drinking. Once it's bottled, it doesn't improve any more.

It probably wasn't worth drinking in the first place. That's a daft thing to do to Scotch, so it sounds more like a gimmick than anything else.

What is it anyway ?

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

Single malt Thistledown 32 year old scotch, sealed in a Bacarrat decanter.

Oo Oo Let me redo that last quote, I may have been a little hasty. I'll even save your life with the lead. You know the early signs of lead poisoning is insanity and with me they wouldn't know the difference!!

That reminds me of a comment made by the boss of a crystal factory, that if anyone was prepared to buy one of his decanters at full price, he would happily fill it with the finest scotch.

You paid for the decanter. The scotch came free.

The only tests I know of for alcohol in lead crystal were actually done at Alfred University to test whether the various methods of treating the edge produced different results. Lead was taken up when wine was stored in glasses for 30 days. Storing mildly acidic alcoholic wine in lead crystal was not recommended.

I still have that shade that needs fixing?

Send the hooch and the shade, by the time I finish the bottle the shade will be done and I'll know how much more you owe me!!

That's from Little Mill isn't it ? Not exactly an overpoweringly flavoured one at the best of times (I'm a Macallan drinker), but it's probably the malt least likely to suffer from being shut up like Aladdin's genie.

OTOH, a Bacarrat decanter isn't my taste either, but they're certainly sought after.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

No no no.... I want the shade to be straight!

hehe gettin' a bit off topic now, have a sip and think of me while doing so! I'll toast the memories of Coney Island, (I don't have 'em, you do!)