Peek at my streaming history and you’ll see a pattern forming: Love Island (UK, USA and Australia), Love is Blind, Bachelor in Paradise, Too Hot to Handle, FBoy Island — the list goes on and on. If there are hot people humiliating themselves in search of love (and internet fame) in a tropical setting, I will be watching it go down. Through all the ~research on the cultural impacts of reality dating TV~ I’ve done this summer, I’ve noticed an interesting recurrence: gold drinkware.
Midway through the infamous movie night episode, I realized the real bombshell of Love Island UK season 10 was the gold champagne flutes contestants sipped from while all the drama went down. Fresh from a trip to the pods, I couldn’t help but notice how remarkably similar these metallic cups looked to the gold wine glasses from Love is Blind. So now, as your resident reality TV aficionado, I’m declaring gold glasses the official drinkware of dating shows.
Thankfully, those of us looking to channel our inner reality TV star can find the Love Island gold champagne flutes on Amazon for under $20. Sold as a set of two, these stainless steel glasses are perfect for mimosas at a season 10 rewatch with your squad, a romantic date-night toast with your partner, or a TikTok roast of your least favorite couple.
Why, you may ask, do Love Island contestants drink from gold cups? For the same reason as the contestants on Love is Blind and other reality TV dating shows: to conceal what contestants are drinking — and, more importantly, how much. It’s an open secret that Love Island participants aren’t allowed more than two alcoholic drinks per night and that what’s chugged during terrace chats and sexy challenges is actually water. Plus, keeping drink levels hidden from viewers makes it easier for producers to splice together clips without us realizing.
Though Amazon has plenty of gold champagne flutes, wine goblets, martini glasses, and water cups to choose from, my personal pick is these gold Dragon Glassware x Barbie the Movie champagne flutes and wine glasses with a pink interior that kill two pop culture birds with one stone. Should Barbie and Ken decide to enter the Love Island villa or the Love is Blind pods, they’d most certainly drink from these — they did during Barbie’s mega-party in Barbieland after all.
Dragon Glassware x Barbie Gold Champagne Flutes
Dragon Glassware x Barbie Gold Wine Glasses
Eagle-eyed Love Island fans were quick to spot that the contestants on the current season of Love Island USA—which you can (and very much should) be watching on Peacock— aren’t drinking from the same gold glasses as their UK counterparts. Instead, they’re sipping from colorful diamond-shaped glassware that is perfect for a party (and that comes in a twelve-pack for $26 0n Amazon).
So when the next season of Love Island, or any reality dating show for that matter, airs, I won’t just be looking for love. I’ll be keeping an eye out for gold glasses and other trendy drinkware, too.
Shop Reality Dating TV-Inspired Drinkware
Gerrii Colorful Stemless Plastic Wine Glasses
Tessco Stainless Steel Gold Wine Glasses
MyGift Gold Martini Glasses
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Commerce Writer
Sarah Maberry is a Firstfinds Commerce Writer at Hearst Magazines, covering trending products in fashion, beauty, lifestyle and beyond. She’s obsessed with being the first to wear, try, watch and buy what’s going viral.