Effect of sensory characteristics and non-sensory factors on consumer liking of various canned tea products

The objectives of this study were to understand the sensory attributes that drive consumer liking for tea products and to investigate the effects of consumer age and product information on the acceptance of tea products. Descriptive analysis and consumer taste testing were conducted with 10 canned tea products. In the descriptive analysis, the sensory characteristics of tea products were evaluated using 17 attributes. In the consumer taste testing, 500 tea drinkers were recruited from 5 age groups (that is, ages in the 10's to 50's). Each age group was divided into 2 subgroups and rated the acceptance of samples with or without accompanying information about each sample. The General Linear Model was constructed to evaluate the effect of information and age on the liking of the tea products. Preference mapping was performed to understand the important sensory characteristics that drive consumer liking. The non-sensory factors significantly affected the acceptance for tea products. The younger consumers distinctly preferred black tea to green/oolong tea, but this tendency diminished in the older groups. The majority of consumers liked lemon-flavored black tea when the product information was not provided. When the information was presented, the acceptance tended to shift to bitter/astringent-tasting green/oolong teas, which are marketed for their health benefits.