Beer tastes different depending on the type of glass we drink it from, a study suggests.
Blindfolded drinkers thought the same beer tasted sweeter when they sipped it from a thicker-rimmed glass compared with a thin-rimmed one.
The findings suggest that ‘the glass should not be regarded merely as a passive container but as an active contributor, or even a ‘co-star’, in the multisensory experience of drinking’, said the researchers, from Chuo University in Japan.
Charles Spence, professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, commented: ‘People associate sweetness with roundness, and it may be that the rounder feeling of a thicker glass lip against the lip primes sweetness.’
For the study, researchers enlisted 49 men and women – all regular beer and wine drinkers – but did not tell them the purpose of the study.
They were each given two glasses of the same beer at a time to taste while wearing a blindfold.
A new study has found people think the same beer tasted sweeter when they sipped it from a thicker-rimmed glass compared with a thin-rimmed one (file photo)
The glasses in each test were nearly identical in shape, but one of the glasses had a thin rim – between 1mm and 1.2mm – while the other was 2.9mm-3mm.
The drinkers described nearly two-thirds of the samples sipped from the thicker-rimmed glasses as sweeter.
Professor Spence said the results of the study ‘build on an emerging body of gastrophysics research demonstrating that while we can’t literally taste plates, cups or cutlery, nevertheless, the tableware we use can exert a significant influence over the tasting experience, both in terms of what we think we are tasting, and how much we enjoy the experience’.
The findings appeared in the journal Food Quality And Preference.
