Hot chocolate tastes best in orange mugs, study finds

"The color of the container where food and drink are served can enhance some attributes like taste and aroma," said study lead Betina Piqueras-Fiszman / CNET

Before snuggling up to a warm fire with a hot cup of cocoa this winter, you may want to take a second look at the cup holding the chocolate. The warm beverage may taste more flavorful in an orange cup or cream-colored cup, a new study suggests.

The results add to past work showing how factors that have nothing to do with food preparation can affect the taste of food.

"The color of the container where food and drink are served can enhance some attributes like taste and aroma," said study co-author Betina Piqueras-Fiszman, a researcher at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia in Spain and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, in a statement.

In general, how people perceive taste is influenced by many factors unrelated to the actual food. Past studies have shown that the color of the plate, the price on a bottle of wine, and the verbal description of food can affect people's enjoyment of dishes and drinks alike. 

To see how hot chocolate enjoyment was affected by cup color, Piqueras-Fiszman and her colleagues asked 57 participants to rate samples of the same delicious beverage in four colors of plastic cup: white, cream, orange and red. (All cups were white on the inside.)

The participants said the drink was more flavorful when served in a cream- or orange-colored cup. Interestingly, participants rated the orange- and cream-colored cups of cocoa tastier despite the fact that participants didn't say there were any significant differences in sweetness or aroma between the colored cups.

The new results may help restaurant owners and Martha Stewart types serve cocoa in a cup that maximizes the enjoyment of the hot drink.

The findings were published in the October issue of the Journal of Sensory Studies.

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[blackbeard72]

Now that I think of it, I do have an orange cup in my cupboard I my wife serves me hot chocolate in it all the time. And I always tell her, "Wow! this is the best hot chocolate ever!" So now I know it was all in the cup.

[WillowSunstar]

Did they do the testing with any visually impaired people to make sure it's not the perception of the color itself? If they only used sighted people for the study, then it's a flawed study.

[MelWel24]

I think that was the whole point; it's how people perceive the taste when eating from/drinking from different colors....not so much how it actually tastes. So blind people wouldn't work, as they can't see the colors and perceive any different flavors based off of that. But, I bet you they perceive different flavors based off of shape, size and temperature of a dish.

[xijnnjix]

I wonder if this is true for other drinks too. Like coffee? I don't see much of a difference, but I've already been drinking from a cream colored cup with an orange band. Maybe it's worn off for me...

[bobbychuckles]

I drink my hot chocolate from a cup of misery and despair.