Sensory characteristics and consumer liking of commercial sojues marketed in Korea

This study was conducted to analyze sensory profiles of commercial sojues using a standardized sensory evaluation procedure, and to investigate the effects of sensory characteristics and brands on consumer liking for soju. Descriptive analysis and consumer taste testing were conducted for seven commercial sojues. For the descriptive analysis, eight panelists generated and evaluated 12 flavor and one pain-sensation attributes for the soju, and there were significant differences among the soju samples for all the 13 sensory attributes. For the descriptive data, principal component analysis was performed to summarize the sensory characteristics of the sojues. For the consumer testing, 224 soju drinkers (20-29 year-olds) were recruited and randomly divided into two groups; a blind group and a group with the knowledge of brand. While the hedonic ratings obtained from the blind group didn't indicate significant differencesamong the sojues, the ratings obtained from the brand-informed group showed significant differences. Finally, the individual preferences of the 112 consumers in each group were investigated by preference mapping techniques.