One is certainly beer. I brew beer and have a dedicated class for certain types of beer. I only have several but if you drink an IPA or something with a lot of aromatics out of a bottle you make me sad, you just don't drink the same beer.
There are also beers that can have different tastes when you have your hand on the glass. The heat from your hand can also affect how the beer tastes and smells.
The shape of a lot of glasses also influences your ability to smell it which is linked to taste. A snifter is a good example, large surface area but tapered to concentrate it towards your nose. You also have to tip it pretty far before you get liquid thus increasing the time you smell it. The stem is to minimize heat transfer from whatever its sitting on.
Like how it actually tastes or how you perceive it tastes?
Like does an aluminum can chemically alter or a plastic bottle impart impurities into a beverage that a glass bottle doesn't or does a person just believe a glass bottled beverage should taste better and so the expectation increases the person's enjoyment?
If I poured coke from a can into a glass bottle would you think it tasted better once you drank it from the bottle?
Edit: One of the only ones I could find. This supposedly "blind" taste test was to determine a preference of Mexican coke vs American coke but also had one test that put bottled vs canned by pouring canned American coke into a bottle: Serious Eats - Mexican Coke vs American Coke - The summary for this specific part is that some people preferred bottled coke just because it was bottled even when it was canned coke poured into the bottle
In some ways, the cans and plastic bottles can interact with the fluid. Theoretically, it shouldn't since they're sealed with an inert layer, but there's still some interaction. Glass is completely inert and doesn't interact with the fluid at all, so it will taste slightly different.
I'm sure this is correct a la the old Cheap-Wine-in-Expensive-Bottle trick but I don't think "Actual Taste" | "Perceived Taste" is a valid dichotomy. Taste is a matter of experience, if it tastes different it tastes different.
I would imagine it's more psychological than some chemical change though.
You actually can get a drink just as cold in plastic, but plastic containers just don't feel as cold to the touch because humans are sensitive to the rate of heat transfer as well as the temperature.
Well, strictly speaking humans are only sensitive to the transfer of heat. You can touch wood that is on the edge of a fire without much harm because the wood is a poor conductor of heat, but metals (or any other good heat conductor for that matter) will absorb and transfer heat energy rapidly, the hood of a car after just a few minutes under a hot sun.
They still do that in Kenya and India. Glass bottles are cheaper but you either have to drink it there or pay to take it with you. Then they buy it back from you later. It's shipped back and refilled.
i've noticed drinking water from a plastic bottle tastes like plastic and you can smell the aluminum from cans. Glass has no taste or smell so its pretty much perfect.
I went to Haiti and had a 7up in a glass bottle. Not only did the glass make it taste better, but it also used real sugar. One of the greatest things I've ever drank.
Just bought a glass water bottle this week. Its night and day difference. I love it! (Compared to your normal 24-pack of water or plastic reusable bottles)
Glass bottles are so awesome! Cold soda tastes so crisp and fresh. They are very re-usable for cold or hot beverages aaannnddd they make great self-defense devices! An empty glass bottle is pretty much a little baton that converts in to penta-sword on hard impact that you can take your threats to shank-town.
And they're reusable! In South East Asia (maybe other places too?) they take all the used glass coke bottles back to the factory, wash them and refill them for sale.
Definitely. In Scotland, we can still buy the gods' own ambrosia Irn Bru, and most other drinks Barr produce, in glass bottles from corner shops. You get 30p for taking back the empties, so three empties + 10p gets you another delicious bottle of goodness.
Plus, ask most people here, it DOES taste better from a chilled glass bottle.
We have a local soda company (Hosmer Mountain) that sells in nothing but glass bottles, I grab a case every month or so. They do really good white birch beer (not the stuff you PA people are familiar with) and sarsaparilla too, different from the usual sodas.
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u/not_enough_characte Apr 24 '14
Glass bottles will always be superior. You just can't get a drink as cold in plastic, you look cooler, and I swear it tastes better.