Examining emotions and comparing the EsSense Profile® and Coffee Drinking Experience in coffee drinkers in Philadelphia

Alisa Kanjanakorn

doi:10.17918/00007786

Emotion research has been gaining interest in the food industry to help add another aspect to the sensory evaluation of a product. The EsSense Profile® is a method that has been developed to measure emotions associated with general food and drink consumption in a product development context. Coffee has become a very popular drink and an important part of most people's routine. It is consumed for many different reason depending on the individual and certain lifestyle factors, whether for a relaxer, mental clarifier, or stimulator. Thus, the beverage can provide a desirable emotional experience. The Coffee Drinking Experience (CDE) is a product specific emotion scale developed for coffee consumption. Since the method has never been evaluated, the objectives of the study were to test CDE using the EsSense Profile® method as a comparison using coffee drinkers in Philadelphia. Time of the day and gender effects were also looked at as possible influences. Three hundred and thirty two coffee consumers from six coffee shops in the Philadelphia area participated in the natural environment study. Questionnaires were placed at the coffee shop where consumers voluntarily participated in the study. The questionnaire instructed participants to rate their emotions on a 5-point intensity scale before and after consuming their coffee beverage. A free coffee drink was an incentive for returning a completed ballot. The response rate from the six coffee shops was 57%. The t-tests showed that more terms from the EsSense Profile® method (82.1%) were significant compared to the Coffee Drinking Experience (77.3%). Both methods showed that participants were in a positive mood before coffee consumption and rated the negative terms the lowest in emotional intensity (disgusted, guilty, aggressive, worried, bored). Both male and female participants felt both positive and negative emotions with neither gender showing more pronounced emotions. For time of day effects, the afternoon group showed less emotion changes than the morning and afternoon group and the CDE method was also able to capture the influence of coffee by showing a more active and task oriented mental state in the morning and afternoon group. While the EsSense Profile® had more significant terms and shows that it is a good baseline for an initial emotion study for a new product, it does not capture the influences of coffee. For example, the results from the CDE method showed significant differences in the emotion terms related to the focus mental state (motivated, productive, clear minded). Further research is needed, but overall our results show that there may be a need for focus on product specific emotion scales.

Examining emotions and comparing the EsSense Profile® and Coffee Drinking Experience in coffee drinkers in Philadelphia

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Examining emotions and comparing the EsSense Profile® and Coffee Drinking Experience in coffee drinkers in Philadelphia

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