How the Shape of a Cup or Glass Affects The Taste of Your Coffee

Offerings from companies like Kruve and Icosa brewhouse claim they enhance the taste of your coffee. Let’s investigate.

It is well-known that the shape of a glass affects the taste of a drink in it.

Connoisseur of wines and spirits have long known that the shape of a glass can enhance the taste and sometimes even change it. It is fair to assume that this equally applies to coffee.

Coffee beans contain over a thousand different compounds, of which many are flavour-active. These chemicals dissolve in water and carry flavours and aromas. The extraction and maturation of the coffee beans has a great impact on the aroma and taste, especially on the natural sugars and acids that they contain. Heat can also influence the aroma by changing its intensity and content.

The aromatic compounds in coffee interact with each other, with water molecules and with other compounds in food, resulting in different aromas for each drink. These interactions are strongly influenced by other compounds such as fats or proteins which are present in coffee but also foods. The shape of a cup can affect how these reactions take place even after the coffee is brewed, leading to different aromas depending on the type of beverage being consumed.

Temperature Retention

The shape of a coffee cup can affect how hot your coffee stays. Coffee is for the most part a hot beverage and sometimes a cold one, but a lukewarm drink would not be very pleasant. Glasses or cups that are designed to retain heat very well will preserve the heat and aromas of a hot beverage lasting longer.

The type and shape of the cup also affects its ability to retain heat. A narrow cup can hold more heat than a wider one. To get the best results, the area of contact with the coffee should be as large as possible. Double wall cups or thermal ones will have the best results due to their thicker walls.

Headspace

The headspace of a vessel, or the volume between the liquid and the top of the glass plays a big role in affecting the coffee’s taste. A large headspace will allow volatile compounds to evaporate and change the taste of your beverage.

An Interactive experience

Drinking coffee is an interactive experience that involves the senses of sight and smell. Besides the objective realities of how the shape of a cup or glass affect the taste of your coffee, there are also perceived effects, for instance how your eyes are attracted to the colour of a cup could actually have an effect on how you perceive the taste of coffee in it.

I have personally never tried a Kruve or Icosa cup, but I do look forward to it and have little doubt that I will find the coffee drank through them, whether objective or perceptually, to taste different from my everyday cups.

*The images above are courtesy of Kruve