Science & technology | Beer drinking

Shape up!

What sort of glass you drink from predicts how fast you drink

What, exactly, is a “half”?

“WOULD you like that in a straight or a jug, sir?” was once a common response to British pubgoers’ request for a pint. Like the Lilliputians in “Gulliver’s Travels”, who argued whether a boiled egg should be opened at the pointed or the rounded end, beer drinkers were adamant that only from their preferred shape of glass did their tipple taste best.

Straight-sided glasses—sometimes with a bulge a little below the lip—have largely won the day. Jugs—squat cylinders of dimpled glass equipped with handles—are now rare. But that is probably because straight glasses are easier for bar staff to collect and stack, rather than because straight-glass lovers have persuaded their fellow-drinkers of the virtue of their view. The shape of a beer glass does, nevertheless, matter. For a group of researchers at the University of Bristol have shown that it can regulate how quickly someone drinks.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline "Shape up!"

Four more years?

From the September 1st 2012 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Science & technology

It is dangerously easy to hack the world’s phones

A system at the heart of global telecommunications is woefully insecure

The Great Barrier Reef is seeing unprecedented coral bleaching

Continued global warming will mean its obliteration


Some corals are better at handling the heat

Scientists are helping them breed