Why Drinks Taste Better When Sipped Through A Straw

It doesn't explain why some things don't taste better through a straw like ice tea or beer.

Also, sucking a straw forces you to drink in a way that maximizes exposure to your palate, somewhat the same way "pro" wine tasters drink wine.

If you have an hour or two free, get one of those little wine aerators and do the taste test. It's a night-and-day difference.

This also appears to be one of the topics addressed in Myrhvold's epic _Modernist Cuisine_.

I wonder if it's partly cultural - in Guilin, China there's a place called Jack Coffee that sells coffee in a covered plastic cup that you drink through a straw. At first I was turned off by the idea, but after a few days I came to enjoy it.

I'm in Vietnam now, and my first night I met an old friend. He ordered a beer, put two ice cubes in the glass, and poured the beer over the ice. I said, "Beer on ice...?" He said, "Hmm?" Me: "You've got ice in the glass. And you pour the beer on the ice." He says, "Oh, yeah, I didn't get it at first, but now I'm converted."

So I wonder how much it's cultural - also, it seems like a lot of things that aren't drank from a straw like tea, coffee, wine are generally more high status/high fashion type signifier than something like milk or soda.