Hot chocolate tastes better in an orange cup

January 3, 2013 in Psychology & Psychiatry

Cup color influences the taste of hot chocolate

Hot chocolate tastes better in an orange colored cup. Credit: SINC

European scientists say they have found further evidence that how you serve food and drink matters hugely in the perception of taste.

Researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the University of Oxford recruited 57 volunteers and asked them to taste hot chocolate served in plastic cups with four different colours—white, cream, red and orange with white on the inside.

The chocolate was the same in all the samples, but the volunteers found that the flavour was better when the drink was served in the orange or cream-coloured cups.

"The colour of the container where food and drink are served can enhance some attributes like taste and ," Betina Piqueras-Fiszman of the Polytechnic University of Valencia said in a press release.

The findings could be beneficial to and , Piqueras-Fiszman added.

Previous research has found that yellow containers boost the perception of flavour of lemons in ; beverages with cold colours, like blue, seem more thirst-quenching than warm colours like red; and if drinks are pink, they are perceived as being more sugary.

The study appears in a specialist publication, the Journal of Sensory Studies.

More information: Betina Piqueras-Fiszman, Charles Spence. "The influence of the color of the cup on consumers' perception of a hot beverage". Journal of Sensory Studies 27 (5): 324–331, 2012.

Press release

(c) 2013 AFP

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antialias_physorg
Jan 03, 2013

Rank: 4 / 5 (1)
Might be something people could try out on a diet. Use less sugar but serve on pink plates/in pink cups.
Use low fat products but on orange plates, etc.
julianpenrod
Jan 03, 2013

Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
Actually, such phenomena were known for a long time. In fact, it was known decades ago, for example, that the color orange also made people feel hungry. That's why, during the Reagan inspired explosion of corporate criminality during the Eighties, fast food restaurants from McDonald's to Burger King to Roy Rogers used color schemes that incorporated yellows, red, oranges and browns. Subconcious manipulation of the unwitting. They changed since then, but red is still a common color. In the same way, light blue was found to inspire imagination in many, which seems to be the reason they are using chemtrails to deprive the public they intend to enslave of blue sky as much as possible.
Silverhill
Jan 03, 2013

Rank: not rated yet
These alleged chemtrails aren't doing a very good job of obscuring the sky, as you may have noticed. Natural clouds do a much better job -- yet people's imaginations, whether in the arts or the sciences, continue. How very odd.
Bellatrix
Jan 04, 2013

Rank: not rated yet
Burger King and McDonalds were using orange, red and yellow in their restaurants long before the 1980s. So were Denny's, Der Weinerschnitzel, Pizza Hut, Howard Johnson, et cetera.
rynox
Jan 04, 2013

Rank: not rated yet
Might be something people could try out on a diet. Use less sugar but serve on pink plates/in pink cups.
Use low fat products but on orange plates, etc.


I read an interesting study the other day-

They sat people down in a room to consume some food- this is the control group. Then they sat a statistically similar group of people in a room and gave them the same food, except for the second group, inside the room, there were inconspicuous McDonald's and Burger King logos. The people in the second group ate more food even though they weren't eating McDonald's or Burger King food.

It seems the mere exposure to McDonald's and Burger King logos were enough to cause people to eat more food.

Scary stuff.
obama_socks
Jan 04, 2013

Rank: 1 / 5 (3)
You get a 5 for your correct observation, Julian. It seems that the same principle applies to clothes. For instance, any time I wear a shirt that's blue, particularly a certain shade of royal blue, I've noticed that I get more female attention than if I wear a gray shirt.
Gorgeous babes give me that "come-hither" look. It works also with other colors, but not as good as a blue shirt. I wear tight jeans, also blue, so their gaze moves down to my crotch, then up again. I used to enjoy it all the time, but now my girlfriend gets very jealous, so the fun is over. :(

I haven't seen too many chemtrails lately crisscrossing the sky. Maybe they 'done their stuff', whatever that may be. A camera is a good idea to carry around to take pics of them the next time you see them.
Lurker2358
Jan 05, 2013

Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
Small minded fools.

I have an idea for a food taste test experiment.

Have 3 groups, control, positive, and negative.

Each group is blind folded.

Control group eats the food with no stimulus.

Positive group is told how great the food is before they are given a sample, "This stuff's delicious!"

Negative group is told how awful the food is before they are given sample, "I really don't like it."

Each group is actually fed the same thing (something slightly exotic that they won't easily recognize while blindfolded).

After the experiment they are given a questionaire to rate the food on various characteristics.

Small minded people's responses would be influenced by the stimulus.
Rank 5 /5 (2 votes)
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soft drinks, food manufacturers, aroma, chefs, taste, drinking, food, chocolate
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