Some people maintain that soda pop, beer, and (according to the posting by This Year’s Model in this MPSIMS thread ketchup taste better in glass bottles than in cans or plastic containers. Beyond personal opinion and nostalgia, is there any factual basis for this conclusion? Has anybody done blind taste tests to determine if there’s any noticeable difference between soda or beer from a glass bottle and soda or beer from a can? Does glass actually do a better job than aluminum in preserving a beverage’s flavor?
I think we’ll have to differ on that. I prefer beer from cans rather than glass, due to the ability to chill them more quickly. I find absolutely no difference in taste. However, beer is more likely to be affected by sunlight in a bottle than a can (obvously)- even a brown bottle.
Plastic bottles have all but completely replaced glass ones for soft drinks, but I don’t pick up the plastic taste from a plastic bottle like I do aluminum from the can. I prefer the taste of drinks in bottles rather than cans. It’s uncanny.
If you put your tongue against aluminium can you not taste it? I’m not saying the beverage itself is affected but that you get the occassional taste of aluminium when drinking directly from a can. If you poor into a glass first, then I agree, no difference in taste (to me).
I don’t drink a lot of soft drinks, but I remember with fondness the glass bottles my mother used to buy coke and pepsi in when I was a kid. 16oz glass in 8 packs, if I remember correctly, returnable too.
That thick glass kept the liquid cold in a way that plastic just can’t. IMO it did taste better.
Lately I’ve been seeing coke in glass bottles imported from Mexico. I’m gonna buy me some of those next time I’m at the store methinks…
I am hosting a poker night this weekend and I will serve half my friends bottled beer and half canned beer, with all beverages served in beer mugs. I will then take a poll, see what percentage of the time they can correctly answer what type they have… then time for another ‘round’ of scientific study. By the end of the night, we should be able to tell if they get better than 50% correct, what we would expect from probability.
Well, it would seem that the running hypothesis here is that they won’t be able to tell the difference: once you decant the beer out of the can, you won’t be able to taste the aluminum any more. (Unless some is absorbed into the beer, but I thought that beverage cans were lined with a thin layer of plastic to prevent this — correct me if I’m wrong.)
Do let us know what the results are once your hangover dies down, though.
I can’t find a cite (didn’t search very long) but I’ve hear beer makers say there is nothing wrong with canned beer and that if served in mugs at the same temp., canned is better. As previously noted, canned beer tastes nasty because you’re tasting the can.
My searching also found many alarmist “ALUMINUM EATS YOUR BRAIN!!!11~!” sites so it may be timely to read these from Cecil:
I don’t have a cite for this but I remember hearing about a study that tested the difference between old and new Coke bottles. It seems people preferred Coke from the older bottles. The hypothesis was that it had something to do with the old bottles being “spiced” with the flavor of Coke by re-use.
One factor that may affect the difference in taste is the location of the canning and bottling plants. I haven’t checked lately, but for a long time, all the canned Coke® sold here was from Houston, TX. All the bottled Coke was from Indianapolis, IN, and it tasted different, because Houston water tastes different from Indy water.
I once asked a worker at a Rock Bottom brewpub if the recipes are the same in all the RB pubs. He explained that he had to cope with the water in Indianapolis, which is “terrible for brewing.”
The wonderful nice thing about those cokes in glass bottles imported from Mexico is that they’ve got real sugar in them rather than corn syrup. All the better for reliving your youth…
Another possible difference - in the old days, Coke was made using cane sugar instead of corn syrup. Then Coke got cheap and switched, and Coke isn’t as good any more. So if you remember a different taste from the old bottled coke, that may be it.
If, indeed you can tell anything at all by the end of the night
Anecdotal evidence warning
My wife (girlfriend at the time) always used to sneer at beer in cans. I used to say she was just a snob and that there was no difference between cans and bottles. One night I did a switcheroo on her and unbeknownst to her gave her a glass of beer from a can.
Instant reaction: “Urrgh, this is from a can!”
Of course it might have been something to do with bubbles or whatever (and not taste). And she just may have heard the can open (although I was trying to avoid that). And she may also have been suspicious as to why I’d given her a glass.
When I was growing up, we’d get Coke and Mountain Dew in 16-ounce glass bottles. I miss them. I have no doubt that they tasted WAY better, to me at least.
