Consumers' perception of different brewed coffee extractions using the sorting technique

Abstract

This study investigated coffee brewing methods from the consumer perspective using the sorting task. The hypothesis was that consumers consider espresso and coffee capsule beverages to be the result of similar extractions. In the first assessment, the following ten extraction methods were studied: paper filter, cloth strainer, Italian coffee maker, French press, electric coffeemaker, espresso, and four capsule coffee machines, and 36 assessors conceptually sorted them into groups. In the second assessment, two espresso and eight capsule coffee samples were evaluated. One hundred and eighteen assessors tasted the samples and sorted theminto groups according to their sensory similarity. They also evaluated each group for their acceptability and quality and characterized them by the checkall- that-apply (CATA) method. The results showed that when conceptually evaluating the different brewing methods, the consumers considered espresso and capsule coffees to be alike, but when they tasted the different espresso and capsule coffees, they perceived them as different beverages. Therefore, the sorting task is suitable for measuring how the consumers perceive similarities and differences among different brewed coffees, and was improved by associationwith the CATA analysis