Sorry if this has been posted before. I tried searching the archives but turned up nothing. So here goes:
About six months ago I noticed that my local market sells Coke in 237 ml glass bottles so I decided to pick some up. I loved it. In fact I loved it so much I stopped drinking Coke from the plastic bottles and the cans. That is until I tried a can again yesterday.
So my question is what’s the deal with the difference in taste between coke from the can or plastic bottle and coke from a glass bottle?
Is it really possible that the can or plastic bottle are really affecting the taste that much? Or is the coke from the bottle processed at an entirely different plant? Or maybe it’s a different recipe.
Could this be a psychological effect? I thought this was it, but many other people I know have tried the bottles and agree that it does taste different, and most prefer it to the “normally” packaged Coke.
I noticed a difference years ago when switching from glass bottles to plastic with Mt. Dew. I didn’t like it as well out of the plastic, the glass bottle definitely was different. Well then they did away with the glass totally and I got used to the taste from plastic. Now I hardly ever drink soda. Just wanted to add that I have noticed the same thing with other soft drinks, no explanation here.
First off, our sense of taste is largely influenced by our olfactory senses (smell) in conjunction with our tastebuds. Ever notice how glassware comes in many different shapes with specific purposes? Port glasses, brandy snifters, champagne flutes and so on? Part of the reason for this is the subtle changes to the way a particular beverage is percieved to taste, since the glass affects both its ability to breathe, and the airflow to our sense of smell while drinking it.
Second is thermodynamics. Ever heard of “entropy”? This is the property of things which measures their tendency to establish an equilibrium closer to a state of chaos. Perhaps there is a better way to explain this, but maximizing entropy (and simultaneously minimizing enthalpy, or the system energy) is essentially why you can’t unbake a loaf of bread, or why broken dish fragments don’t spontaneously repair themselves. Still with me?
How this applies to soft drinks is that it affects the rate at which a carbonated beverage will go flat. Dissolved carbon dioxide in the drink will come out of solution in bubble form. This is affected by temperature (colder drink will actually hold more dissolved gas), but also by the rate limiting factor of the surface area of your drink exposed to the surrounding air. This is why pop in a two liter bottle, if left in the refrigerator, will go flat faster than an opened can. Bottle and glass shapes affect the exposed surface area. Also, the glass bottle is a better insulator than a thin aluminum can or plastic bottle, and will keep your drink cooler longer, meaning that carbon dioxide gas is produced at a slower rate. Thus, the vapours in a glass, bottle or can at the lower temperature will consist more of the beverage in question than of carbon dioxide (which is odourless), affecting its taste.
Try this experiment: Get a can, a plastic bottle, and a glass bottle of Coke, chilled to the same temperature, and transfer their contents into three identical glasses. I bet they will taste the same.
Just to add to that, the plastic polymers used to manufacture pop bottles do have a greater solubility than aluminium alloys or glass, and it’s conceivable that some concentration of dissolved container exists in a beverage and could affect it’s taste; however, I would expect such a factor to be insignificant.
I have performed the experiment with the glasses with a can and a bottle. They taste exactly the same. The big hangup for me is why the Dr. Pepper from the fountain tastes so darn good, but I can’t stand to drink it from the can.
The same? Really? That’s shocks me. Well I’m never going back to the can or plastic bottle! Screw that! Why don’t more places sell Coke from the glass bottles?!
That’s probebly got someting to do with the differences in how much syrup to water there is in the final product. I drink diet soda exclusivly (diabetic) and I’ve noticed wide differences in taste in the diet pepsi from the popcorn stand across from my office depening on how she’s set her mixture. The more syrup, the more palatable the taste (IMHO). That difference might explain the problem.
I’ve noticed, to a small degree, a difference in flavor between canned or bottled Diet A&W Root Beer and fountain from the stand. The stand tends to be a bit weaker flavored. The taste is the same, but not as strong (and it’s still far and away better than Diet Pepsi…)
When I was still allowed regular soda, I used to love getting coke in the bottle, because the taste did seem different to me. I could never put my finger on why, but the best I can say is that the flavor was smoother.
Okay… add waxed paper cups to the list of options. The same factors apply.
The fountain works a bit differently. Most soft drink dispensers actually don’t dispense a complete product, but rather mix carbonated water with a base syrup on-the-fly. Take a close look as the dispensing nozzle the next time you get a drink that way - a thin stream of dark stuff in the middle of the carbonated water. Obviously, this potentially allows the mixing ratio to be off of the ideal.