Why do people drink hot beverages from cups or mugs, but cold beverages through straws?

Try it, then you will know.

People sip hot beverages. They drink, gulp, swallow cold beverages.

Temperature.

Sipping hot stuff doesn’t bother my sensitive teeth, cold stuff does. The straw minimizes thecontact of cold stuff to teeth.

A straw can bypass taste regions of the tongue, as well. When I was a young man, I would sometimes drink OJ and vodka through a straw. I could drink a lot, fast. No smart. But it happened.

Have you ever tried to drink hot beverages through a straw?? OUCH! One needs to sip (suck a little cooling air along with the fluid) hot stuff to keep from burning the lips.

Ignoring the part about cups and mugs which are to keep your hands from burning, I have stopped getting straws with cold drinks in the past 6 months to reduce single use plastic.

@janbb, me too. And my teeth hurt. Ouch.

I don’t use a straw to drink cold beverages, unless they have ice.

I use a straw when ice is present, so I don’t have to deal with cubes crashing into my teeth while I’m trying to enjoy a drink.

Drinking hot beverages through a straw will melt the straw & also position the hot liquid in a manner that will burn the hell out of a mouth!!! Sipping without a straw gives the mouth the opportunity to choose how hot the liquid will be & how much is allowed to enter the system. Drinking cold beverages with a straw cools the throat & ultimately the body.

Straws are usually plastic. Besides getting burnt, the straw might melt or leech plastic.

Cold drinks with ice are a pain to drink. The ice makes it difficult to drink quickly, and it also can suddenly fall towards your mouth if it had been stuck to the bottom of the glass. Also, it’s difficult to drink a beverage from a tall glass when there isn’t much liquid left. You need to be skilled at controlling the tilt on the glass.

One reason to drink coffee through a straw is to reduce the stains on your teeth. My mom drink her coke through a straw for that reason.

Due to plastic pollution, plastic straws seem to be on their way out, with paper or pasta straws replacing them, which might provide more insulation, and/or more burn to the lips/mouth.