Shape Matters – Coffee Tastes Best In A Tulip-Shaped Cup

You live in the Pacific Northwest.  You have a responsibility.  Chances are all your distant friends and relatives consider you an expert on coffee.  Even if you're not, roll with it and when one of your country cousins asks you about the best way to drink coffee, you tell them this.

When it comes to drinking great tasting coffee, you'll want to invest in a mug that's narrower at the top than it is at the bottom. They are called tulip-shaped mugs and British researchers had nearly 300 visitors to a coffee exhibition drink a brew from three different shaped cups: tulip-shaped, open, or split.

The open cup had a rim wider than its base, or the traditional paper coffee cup shape, and the split cup had an indented waist like an hourglass.

Interestingly, the coffee was judged to be more acidic when served in the split cup, but was said to taste best served out of the tulip-shaped cup.

It may not be the most definitive study of all time but the results may be worth a shot in your kitchen.  The researchers say for the first time that the shape of the cup significantly affects the perception of the brew adding that drinking specialty coffee can potentially be a truly engaging multi-sensory experience, which now should include the cup as an important contributing component.