Ana Nichoola Sorbet Gloves

When the Ana Nichoola Sorbets arrived in the office I was desperate for them to be the perfect cold season glove. Never have I seen gloves that I can happily apply the word 'beautiful' to, before now.

When we originally reviewed these gloves we got very excited that they were available in purple. They're still very good gloves, but they now only come in black. Happily, the palms are still purple. 

And they still look good, with their tough softshell fabric upper and synthetic leather palms, and they do have features to back those looks up. There's subtle gel padding where you need it, reinforced webbing across the palm and on the trigger fingers to assist in durability, a snug wrist cuff and a soft nose wipe, as well as some spangly gold embroidery. Designed to be highly water and wind resistant, they're also intended to be good down to about 5°C, making them useful for all but the very coldest conditions.

The million dollar question though, is whether they lived up to their potential (and my hopes) in performance. The answer is, wait for it... mostly. The gloves are intended to be a snug fit, allowing maximum dexterity for serious riders. The fingers are a good length, even allowing enough space for what I now identify as my slightly longer than average thumbs, which made me smile almost as much as the purple colour.

However, the snug fit also applies to the fingers. Now, I've never experienced tightness here in any gloves before, so I'm not aware of having overly chunky digits, and another tester of a more recent sample reported the same problem: we both found the index fingers to be a little snug at the base. There was a little give after a few wears, but not quite enough. The result was unfortunately some constriction of blood flow, which meant that the gloves didn't deliver the levels of warmth I'd have expected.

The fabrics kept the wind out well, allowed the skin to breathe enough to prevent clamminess, and the wrist cuff was snug and cosy. Ana Nichoola do point out that the gloves should not be pulled on just by the cuff, as this puts unnecessary strain on the seams there, due to the deliberately snug fit of the gloves. The main body of the glove is tougher and more able to withstand the abuse. Dexterity was really good, with no problems at all with controls and the padding was just right, even on long rides and with a variety of bars.

The only small flaw for me was that finger tightness. If it weren't for that, I'd be stockpiling these so that I'd have a sequence of pairs ready for the rest of my life.

Verdict

Fantastic gloves for autumn, spring and winter, but some might find the fingers slightly narrow at the bottom.