The drinking experience: Cup or content?

Fluid food products are always consumed from a container: a package, a cup, a bowl, and so on. The properties of this container may affect how the food is experienced. In the present study, we develop a method to study the effects of container properties on the experience of drinking beverages. Participants either evaluated empty cups made from different materials, or they evaluated the experience of drinking hot tea or a chilled softdrink from these cups. In all three conditions, the same set of attributes was used. The results suggest that for many attributes the drinking experience followed the experience of the cups. However, some deviations were also evident. Ratings on the cold-warm item increased when hot tea was consumed from some of the cups, probably related to the increase of the outside temperature of the cup. Differences between conditions for other items (e.g., robust-fragile, strong-weak), however, do not seem to be related to physical changes of the cup and may have a semantic or emotional origin.