Sensory determinants of refreshing

To better understand how different sensory attributes combine to produce a refreshing sensation, we used a gel model system to vary the composition of ingredients selected to modulate the refreshing sensation: cooling agent, citric acid, peach and mint flavourings and xanthan. A group of 160 target consumers rated the refreshing intensity of the gels and a trained sensory panel evaluated the sensory properties of the same gels using Quantitative Descriptive Analysis®. An internal preference mapping methodology was applied to identify the contribution of the products’ sensory characteristics to the refreshing scores given by consumers. Consumers agreed quite well on the least refreshing gels which were the sweetest, but they differed regarding the sensory drivers of the most refreshing gels. Three segments of consumers were identified for which refreshing was driven mainly by perception of cold/mint, acid and thickness, respectively. Food habits may be partly responsible for the different key sensory drivers among consumer clusters.