We don’t all like the same types of coffee, here’s why.
Sensory and emotion data collected during coffee tasting could help create coffee products for the specific tastes of individual coffee drinkers.
New valuable data could explain changes in coffee consumption and purchase behaviour shaping the way forward for new products and happy customers.
A recent study, published in April 2019, aimed to identify sensory drivers which lead to the previously identified emotional responses that occur when we drink coffee.
A trained descriptive coffee panel from the Wolf Group, USA, evaluated six coffee samples with a range of roast levels from light to dark and described the aromas of each one. This descriptive data combined with the emotion data was studied to find that, in general, coffee aroma, citrus and acidity elicited negative feelings and cocoa aroma, tobacco, bitter, roast, burnt, and body generated positive emotions.
The sensory drivers varied depending on the preference of the coffee drinkers for light or dark roast coffee.
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Fourty four emotions, collected from 94 coffee drinkers aged 18-70, were studied to identify the variety of sensory drivers. For example, negative emotions such as bored, disgusted, annoyed and disappointed were driven by coffee aroma. Pleasant emotions were associated with cocoa aroma compared to jolted and content feelings which were caused by the unfamiliar tobacco flavour.
By also examining different coffee preferences the research was made relevant for a variety of consumer preferences. Understanding the consumer enables businesses within the industry to be successful in the competitive coffee market.
Although there has been previous research analysing human emotion, linking emotions to food and drink preferences has only recently been studied. We like to drink coffee because of its sensory characteristics and not just the caffeine buzz we want from our morning latte.