Important Sensory, Association, and Postprandial Perception Attributes Influencing Young Taiwanese Consumers’ Acceptance for Taiwanese Specialty Teas

Abstract

For hundreds of years, Taiwan has been famous for its various specialty teas. The sensory features of these teas have been well specialized and standardized through sensory evaluations performed by tea experts in yearly competitions throughout history. However, the question arises of whether young Taiwanese consumers, whose dietary behaviors have become Westernized, agree with the conventional sensory standards and association/postprandial concepts in the traditional tea market of Taiwan. To study young Taiwanese consumers’ ideas towards traditional specialty teas, this research recruited 109 respondents, younger than the age of 30, to taste seven Taiwanese specialty tea infusions of various degrees of fermentation, and their opinions were gathered by questionnaires composed of check-all-that-apply (CATA) questions and hedonic scales. Through statistical analyses, we found that several tea sensory attributes which were emphasized in experts’ descriptive sensory evaluations were not appreciated by the young Taiwanese people. Instead, tea aroma and late sweetness/palatable/smooth/refreshing mouthfeels were the most important sensory attributes contributing to their tea preference. Overall, there would generally be no problem in serving young Taiwanese consumers lightly-fermented oolong teas that generate the highest digestive and lowest heartburn postprandial perceptions.

Identifying drivers of liking for Korean traditional rice wine ( Yakju ) across different age groups by penalty analysis based on the CATA method

“…To identify the drivers of liking and disliking of yakju , PLS regression was conducted using the results of CATA attributes (X matrix: independent variable) and OL (Y matrix: dependent variable). Although the data obtained from CATA questions was not continuous and may not be appropriate for the PLS regression, it was successfully performed using CATA data ( 25, 30, 31 ) . Weighted regression coefficients were calculated to numerically express the relationship between CATA attributes and OL.…”

Evaluation of Sensory Quality for Taiwanese Specialty Teas with Cold Infusion Using CATA and Temporal CATA by Taiwanese Consumers

“…The information for these tea samples is shown in Table 1. Their individual detailed information can be found in our previous report [12]. The loose teas of similar moderate level of quality were purchased and prepared into cold-brewed tea infusions for this research.…”

Using Sensory Wheels to Characterize Consumers’ Perception for Authentication of Taiwan Specialty Teas

“…In the future, the main challenge of psychological measurement will be to find a scale with proportional characteristics that is not affected by other factors used in the surrounding environment [ 15 ]. Thus, an ideal sensory scale infers that the scale should have a well-defined reference point [ 16 ] and a clean baseline, the psychological distances between units on the scale should be the same, and the scale will provide the same outcome regardless of any disturbance of environmental factors, such as temperature, light, or other stimuli.…”

“…However, consumer preference for a tea flavor is difficult to state, and words used in professional evaluation are too artistic and metaphysical (elegant girly, dame-like, convergent, perfect aging) for others to understand. A recent study noted that the problem stems from the gap between the sensory perceptions of tea beverages by younger consumers and professional opinions in tea marketing [ 16 ]. The application of a sensory lexicon will enable consumers to better understand the flavor of tea they purchase and also drive a new fashion in tea tasting, attracting younger generations and more tea lovers [ 17 , 18 ].…”