Journal article
Does the shape of a cup influence coffee taste expectations? A cross-cultural, online study
- Abstract:
- We report a study designed to investigate whether shape-taste crossmodal correspondences would influence consumers’ expectations concerning coffee. To that end, we conducted a cross-cultural online survey with respondents (N = 309) from China, Colombia, and the United Kingdom (UK). The participants had to rate eight coffee mugs on eight scales by arranging the mugs within a 1000 × 250 pixel box, placing each mug so that its horizontal position matched how strongly they thought the mug matched the scale presented. Amongst other findings, the results revealed that (1) the coffee was expected to be more aromatic from narrower diameter mugs, (2) the coffee associated with shorter mugs was expected to be both more bitter and more intense, and (3) the coffee was expected to be sweeter from wider diameter mugs. An interesting cross-cultural finding was that participants from the UK expected the mugs to be hotter than participants from either China or Colombia. These results add to a large and growing body of research highlighting the associations between visual information and a product’s likely (or expected) sensory qualities. These findings may be useful to those preparing coffee as they suggest that coffee should be presented in certain mugs in order to convey a message that is congruent with the consumer’s expectations.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 666.4KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1016/j.foodqual.2016.10.013
Authors
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Journal:
- Food Quality and Preference More from this journal
- Volume:
- 56
- Issue:
- Part A
- Pages:
- 201–211
- Publication date:
- 2016-11-01
- Acceptance date:
- 2016-10-31
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1873-6343
- ISSN:
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0950-3293
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:656511
- UUID:
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uuid:49d474d4-19c9-49c9-9429-570c026816cf
- Local pid:
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pubs:656511
- Source identifiers:
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656511
- Deposit date:
-
2016-11-02
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Elsevier Ltd
- Copyright date:
- 2016
- Notes:
- Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available online from Elsevie at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2016.10.013
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