Panel performance, sensory characterization and consumer preference of Chinese traditional chrysanthemum drink

Abstract

In China, herbal drinks possess long-standing traditional cultural characteristics cater to consumers' demand for both natural ingredients and functional benefits. So far, the sensory properties of herbal beverages have not been subjected to descriptive analysis. Here, we selected 12 high-selling herbal beverages containing chrysanthemum samples on China's largest online shopping website. A total of 11 sensory descriptors have been associated with the samples, while assessed panel performance and sensory characteristics of samples by PanelCheck software. In addition, using ConsumerCheck to investigate the consumer acceptance of the same samples, applying preference mapping analysis to address the relationship between descriptive and consumer liking date. Box plot and Stacked histogram visualise the distributions of the liking ratings across all consumers for each of the tested products. Preference mapping revealed that the main sensory attributes driving consumers' preferences are fragrant sweet flavour, brillancy, lubrication, sweet taste and overly sweet taste. Thus, this study could guide the development of Chinese traditional chrysanthemum drink. At the same time, the results also provided a simple and open-source software to data statistical method for practitioner without commercial software and programming skills.