ceramic coffee mug affects the taste

The shape of a ceramic coffee mug affects the taste of coffee


Xin xiang Ceramic Mug Manufacturer, The objective of the study was to quantity by descriptive analysis the impact of mug shape (Short/Wide vs. Tall/Narrow) and beverage volume (100, 150, 200 and 250 ml), systematically combined to obtain eight conditions, on the perception of instant coffee. To obtain exhaustive conclusions, the experiment was repeated with four coffee types prepared by combining two coffee species (pure Arabica and pure Robusta) and two powder concentrations (0.8 g/100 ml and 1.6 g/100 ml). The 32 beverages (8 conditions × 4 coffee types) have been profiled sequentially by 11 trained assessors using a glossary of 59 attributes covering appearance, orthonasal aroma, retronasal aroma, taste, mouthfeel and aftertaste perceptions. Results show that conditions significantly impact darkness intensity of all coffee types but high dosed Robusta. This modulation of darkness is not associated with any other significant modulation of perception, except for low dosed Arabica, for which significant changes in darkness are associated with significant changes of four orthonasal attributes (overall aroma intensity, aroma complexity, roasty and malty). It is noteworthy for coffee industry to observe that sensory quality of reconstituted instant coffee was stable across mug and volume conditions for three coffee types. Nevertheless, for low dosed Arabica, the different conditions modulated ortho-nasal perception of aromatic notes probably through crossmodal interactions induced by changes in liquid coffee darkness intensity. Coffee professionals thus need to take into consideration that coffee mugs and cups may affect consumers’ perception of certain coffee types.

The impact of packaging and vessel physical properties on food and beverage sensory expectations and how such expectations modulate sensory experience has largely been investigated in the past decades (Piqueras-Fiszman and Spence, 2015, Spence and Wan, 2015) mainly with respect to colour and shape properties.

The role of colour on consumers’ expectation and/or perception of food and beverage has been largely demonstrated. For instance, expectation for sweetness in orange juice is higher when packaging background colour was orange compared to white (Deliza, Macfie, & Hedderley, 2003). This probably results from learnt perceptual association between orange colour and sweetness which reinforced expectation for sweetness. The white colour of a plate increased actual sweetness of a strawberry mousse in comparison to a black plate (Piqueras-Fiszman, Alcaide, Roura, & Spence, 2012). According to the authors, the white background may have enhanced the perceived pinkness of the mousse though contrast effect and then perceived sweetness of the dessert through crossmodal visual-taste interactions due to congruency between pink colour and sweetness. The impact of mug colour on expected and actual perception of coffee beverage consumers’ perception has been demonstrated and explained by crossmodal interactions between taste and colour, e.g. pink cup increased coffee sweetness and reduced acidity compared to white cup (Carvalho & Spence, 2019). However in another study perceived sweetness of coffee was decreased when experienced in white cup vs transparent and blue cups (Van Doorn, Wuillemin, & Spence, 2014). Indeed, according to the author, the perceived brownness being more intense in the white cup probably through contrast effect, this may have, in turn, increased the perceived coffee flavour and then reduced the perceived sweetness.

Multiple studies explored the impact of shape of container on food and beverage perception (Spence & Van Doorn, 2017). More fruitiness for beer in curved-sided vs regular glass was perceived by consumers because the rounded shape may have evoked the roundness of many fruits (Mirabito, Oliphant, Van Doorn, Watson, & Spence, 2017). Rounded coffee cup further enhanced the perceived sweetness of coffee (Carvalho & Spence, 2018). Indeed some perceptual associations have been demonstrated between container shapes and basic tastes such as round shape and sweetness (Velasco, Woods, Petit, Cheok, & Spence, 2016). An on-line study using mug pictures with different diameter, height, and thickness of rim showed that expected bitterness, taste intensity and aroma strength of coffee were rated higher in short than in taller mug and in small than in large diameter mug (Van Doorn et al., 2017). According to the authors, cultural influence could explain such results as coffee served in short mug are in some countries more concentrated and then “stronger” (e.g. espresso) whereas in larger mug coffees are often more diluted and/or served with milk and then less “strong”. To summarize colour and shape of the container can create sensory expectations resulting from crossmodal implicit associative learning occurring during repeated eating experience as reported for odour and taste modalities (Stevenson, Boakes, & Prescott, 1998). Such sensory-based expectation can, in turn, modulate food and beverage sensory perception. For a review of the role of visual cues on expectation and its impact on actual perception see Deliza and MacFie (1996).

Descriptive analysis method encourages trained panelists to apply an analytical strategy by evaluation sensory attributes independently. However, because of the robustness of perceptual associations implicitly stored in our memory (Mojet & Köster, 2005), we hypothesized that the impact of container physical properties on consumers’ beverage and food perception also influence descriptive analysis results obtained with a trained panel. We tested our hypothesis on coffee beverage served in Short/Wide vs. Tall/Narrow rounded white mugs in porcelain which are regular mugs suitable for sensory evaluation. Based on finding from Van Doorn et al. (2017) showing that both height and diameter modulated sensory expectations, we predicted that coffee perception is modulated by the shape of a mug and that aroma and bitterness are perceived more intense when evaluated in mug with Tall/Narrow shape compared to Short/Wide shape which is associated to more diluted and then less intense coffee and such impact is reinforced with low beverage volume which is associated to more concentrated and then more intense coffee by opposition to larger beverage volumes.

Report by: FOOD QUALITY & PREFERENCE

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