My knee-jerk reaction to this question was to say no, I don’t care about the drink container. But as I read along and thought about it, I realized that I do, in fact, care about my drinking vessels.
No matter what, I prefer glass over plastic, paper, styrofoam, and ceramic. I find the taste and smell of things are more pure and unsullied by the container material.
Wine tastes better in wine glasses and I am a little picky about the shape (white wine glass vs. red wine glass), but I am not so insane as to require different bell shapes for different varietals. Well, excepting sparkling wine, of course, which just tastes so much better in a flute. Unless it’s mixed with juice of some sort, then I’m not too picky.
Beer tastes better in a glass, too. I love pint glasses. However, there are some really cool beer glasses out there, designed for a particular brew. For example, we have these tall, skinny Trumer Pils pint glasses at work.. When designing the glasses, the brewery studied the bubble size and figured out that the beer tastes better if you have to tilt your head back as you drink; it allows the beer to hit just the right place on your palate.
I am particular about my coffee vessels. I have a 16 oz, really beautiful Scorpio mug I bought in Scotland ages ago that is my preferred cup. I have a smaller, maybe 10–12 oz Wonder Woman mug (a most excellent present from my friend), and now a new 12 oz Eco One ‘not a paper cup’ travel mug thing that is pretty and cool.
I will drink cold beverages out of mugs if necessary, it doesn’t bother me that much. I’d actually prefer that to plastic, I think.