A Dash of Virtual Milk: Altering Product Color in Virtual Reality Influences Flavor Perception of Cold-Brew Coffee

Abstract

It is well known that the appearance of food, particularly its color, can influence flavor perception and identification. However, food studies involving the manipulation of product color face inevitable limitations, from extrinsic flavors introduced by food coloring to the cost in development time and resources in order to produce different product variants. One solution lies in modern virtual reality (VR) technology, which has become increasingly accessible, sophisticated, and widespread over the past years. In the present study, we investigated whether making a coffee look milkier in a VR environment can alter its perceived flavor and liking. Thirty-two United Kingdom (UK) consumers were given four samples of black cold brew coffee at 4 and 8% sucrose concentration. They wore VR headsets throughout the study and viewed the same coffee in a virtual setting. The color of the beverage was manipulated in VR, such that participants saw either a dark brown or light brown liquid as they sipped the coffee. A full factorial design was used so that each participant tasted each sweetness x color combination, Participants reported sweetness, creaminess, and liking for each sample. Results revealed that beverage color as viewed in VR significantly influenced perceived creaminess, with the light brown coffee rated to be creamier than dark brown coffee. However, beverage color did not influence perceived sweetness or liking. The present study supports the role of VR as a means of conducting food perception studies, either to gain a better understanding of multisensory integration, or, from an industry perspective, to enable rapid product testing when it may be time-intensive or costly to produce the same range of products in the real-world. Furthermore, it opens potential future opportunities for VR to promote healthy eating behavior by manipulating the visual appearance of foods.

Examining cross-modal correspondence between ambient color and taste perception in virtual reality

“…Researchers have utilized this medium to study the effects of color on taste perception, especially the beverage's (intrinsic) color on its tasting. For example, research from Wang et al (2020) modified the color of the coffee in VR and Huang et al (2019) studied the influence of tea color simulation in VR. In addition to changing the color of the food, Chen et al (2020) studied the synthesis of multiple visual elements, with the environmental color as one of the variables.…”

Sonic Seasoning and Other Multisensory Influences on the Coffee Drinking Experience

“…Coffee is, of course, not unique in this regard (Kotler, 1974;Bell et al, 1994; see also Keller and Spence, 2017), though, as one of the world's most popular beverages, it has certainly attracted more than its fair share of attention from the research scientists (e.g., Petit and Sieffermann, 2007;Maguire and Hu, 2013;Richelieu and Korai, 2014;Wu, 2017). These days, researchers often experiment with virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR, respectively) environments in order to help study the impact of the atmosphere, in one study comparing people's ratings of various different coffee beverages in the virtual coffee shopcomplete with the appropriate visuals, sounds, and even the smell of freshly-baked cinnamon rolls-vs. a standard sensory testing lab in one study (Bangcuyo et al, 2015; see also Wang et al, 2020). The evidence clearly shows that the context, no matter whether real or virtual, really can make a difference to the tasting experience.…”

Exploring the Links between Colours and Tastes/Flavours

“…There is an emerging literature on AR and VR tasting experiences [22,52,159,177,187]. However, one of the first questions to address in this space is whether the knowledge that the colours that we see are virtual, or that the drink has been digitally augmented, matters.…”