It isn’t just nostalgia doing the heavy lifting when you crack open a glass bottle. Glass is chemically inert and non‑porous, so it doesn’t leach anything into the drink or let tiny flavour molecules escape. That means what was bottled is almost exactly what reaches your tongue. Plastic can slowly bleed carbonation; cans have internal linings that can very subtly influence aroma. Glass locks the bubbles in, keeping that fierce, prickly bite people describe as “just slaps different.”

Shape and temperature quietly seal the deal. A narrow glass neck focuses aroma and slows the flow, so Coke arrives on your palate in a tight, intense stream instead of a flat gulp from a wide can. The thicker glass chills more evenly and stays cold longer, and cold heightens refreshment while muting syrupy sweetness. Add ritual – the twist of the cap, the clink of glass – and your brain decides, before the first sip, that this version is the real one.