The drinking experience depends on the multisensory integration of attributes of the drink itself as well as the characteristics of the drinking vessel, not to mention the environment in which the drink happens to be tasted. The receptacles from which we drink have been shown to affect the perception of the sensory and hedonic attributes of various different beverages (especially in the world of wine). The present study was designed to investigate whether the shape of the cup would also influence amateur and/or expert consumers’ perception of aroma, taste, and hedonic evaluation of specialty coffee. A large-sample experiment (involving 276 participants) was conducted in a specialty coffee event in Brazil. The participants were divided into three testing groups according to the shape of the cup in which the coffee was served (tulip, open, or split). Tasters evaluated their experience of the aroma, sweetness, acidity, and liking of the coffee. Multivariate analysis of variance was conducted in order to assess the effect of cup shape on sensory and hedonic ratings, and whether expertise modulated these ratings. Both amateurs and experts judged: (1) the aroma to be significantly stronger in the tulip cup, and (2) the sweetness and acidity to be significantly more intense in the split cup. Interestingly, the split cup received the lowest liking scores from the amateurs, but not from the experts. Taken together, these results demonstrate for the first time that the shape of the cup significantly affects the perception of the sensory attributes of specialty coffee, for both amateur and expert consumers. The implications of these results for the design of coffee cups that convey some functional and/or perceptual benefit as well as possible directions for future research are discussed.

饮用经验取决于饮料本身的属性以及饮用容器的特征的多感官整合，更不用说品尝饮料的环境了。已经证明，我们用来饮用的容器会影响对各种不同饮料（尤其是葡萄酒世界）的感官和享乐属性的感知。本研究旨在调查杯子的形状是否还会影响业余和/或专业消费者的香气，口味和特色咖啡享乐评价的感知。在巴西的一项特色咖啡活动中进行了大样本实验（涉及276名参与者）。根据提供咖啡的杯子的形状（郁金香，开放式或剖分式），将参与者分为三个测试组。品酒师评估了他们在咖啡的香气，甜度，酸度和喜好方面的经验。进行方差的多变量分析，以评估杯形对感觉和享乐评级的影响，以及专业知识是否会调节这些评级。业余爱好者和专家都认为：（1）郁金香杯中的香气明显更强，（2）裂杯中的甜度和酸度明显更强。有趣的是，对开杯的业余爱好者获得的得分最低，而专家则没有。综上所述，这些结果首次证明，无论是业余消费者还是专业消费者，杯子的形状都会显着影响特种咖啡的感官特性。