Sure, on a cold day a hot coffee may be nice to hold and an iced coffee may be unpleasant. But on a hot day? The hot coffee burns your hands; the iced coffee is refreshing to hold. And this is even accepting the premise of the claim.
(Or perhaps it's reversed! Maybe we'd be more likely to think well of someone who asked us to do something mildly unpleasant, in a Franklin-esque way, and resent someone who offered us a pleasant moment only to take it away.)
(Or maybe the idea is mental association? I do, after all, think well of glassblowers and distrust ice cream vendors.)
Are we unknowingly influenced by little things, by the wrong things? Definitey, but I'd be surprised if this were an accurate example.
edit: my apologies for the bit of snark ^^'
I am tickled a bit by the story, though.