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There are two things you should know about Savannah, Georgia, before you visit. One, it is teeming with ghosts, and two, it is exceptionally and oppressively humid. You might insist that the entirety of the southern United States shares these qualities, but Savannah really commits to the bit.
Last fall, I spent a week there in a bed and breakfast, and the owners—lifelong residents of Savannah—made sure to leave neither the moisture nor the malevolent entities unchecked. They painted the ceiling of the inn’s wraparound porch haint blue, a light blue shade that wards off ghosts, according to Gullah tradition. And to combat the humidity, they stocked each room with fans and a generous stack of waffle weave towels.
It had never occurred to me that one type of towel could be ideal for a certain climate, but the owners made sure that nobody left their establishment without knowing this fact. On the bathroom wall hung a handwritten message that read, “Waffle weave towels are far superior to terry cloth towels in absorbency and drying speed, making them ideal, if not necessary for the year-round humidity in Savannah.” This was followed by a more desperate “Please, you’re gonna love ’em!,” making me wonder if the owners owed money to a towel-peddling cartel.
But they were right. Day after rain-soaked day on this particularly damp vacation, the towels delivered on their promises to dry out by the evening. By the time I was headed back to New York City, the waffle weave towel propaganda had successfully infiltrated my brain.
New York isn’t as humid as Savannah, but it’s not particularly dry, either. In my apartment, perhaps due to the air circulation, a wet bathroom towel left on a hook never dries off between uses. And in the summer, the only way to get my towel completely dry is to drape it over a box fan. My kitchen towels, a mixture of thick terry cloth and thinner flour sack ones, are reluctant to dry out too.
After Savannah, I was willing to swap my towels for the waffle weave variety, but before I did so, I wanted to confirm whether the inn owners were right—were waffle weave towels really superior in absorbency and drying speed? I decided to compare terry cloth, cotton huck, waffle weave, and flour sack towels of equal size by measuring their absorbency and time they each took to dry.
Out of the four, the waffle weave towel absorbed the most water (5.7 fluid ounces), followed by terry cloth at 5.4 fluid ounces. (The flour sack and cotton huck towels each absorbed 3.5 fluid ounces.) As for drying times, I can’t offer precise numbers because after checking on them every hour and still finding them damp, I eventually had to go to bed. However, when I got up and checked in the morning, the waffle weave towel was bone-dry. The cotton huck and flour sack weren’t far behind, but the terry cloth had at least half a day to catch up.
The results were more than enough for me to make the swap, and since doing so, I’ve noticed other practical uses for waffle weave towels, especially in the kitchen. Their texture lends itself well to scrubbing down countertops, with a gentle abrasive force that easily dispatches dried streaks of honey or whatever miscellaneous crud is stuck on my stovetop. When wet, they’re great for opening sticky jars, and they take up less space than terry cloth when folded up. So if you happen to live in a humid climate, or just feel besieged by damp and mildewy towels, it’s time to make the switch to waffle weave.
Quiltina 100% Cotton Absorbent Kitchen Dish Towels Set
Sticky Toffee Cotton White Waffle Weave Kitchen Dish Towels
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