Association between colour of coffee in print media and consumer expectations

This study aimed to investigate colour preference of coffee in print media and relationships between colour of coffee and expectations of tastes of coffee including quality. The visual assessments were conducted under two lighting conditions: daylight simulators and tungsten. This was done to investigate the differences in expectations between two lighting conditions. In the experiments, 40 image samples with different colours of coffee were assessed by two observers groups: 10 experts and 30 unexperts. All observers assessed all 40 images using a 1-9 scale, where 1 means the least and 9 means the most, for expectations of preference, quality, intention of purchase, flavour strength and tastes. It was found that the results from two lighting conditions and two observers groups were significantly different. The expert group preferred coffee images having high lightness and chroma, and associated them with quality of coffee. In addition, yellow was associated with sweetness. Both observer groups expected bitter taste from coffee images with low lightness.

本研究旨在探究印刷媒体中咖啡的色彩偏好，以及咖啡色彩与咖啡风味预期（含品质维度）之间的关联。本次视觉评估在两种照明条件下开展：日光模拟器（daylight simulators）与钨丝灯照明，以此探究两种照明条件下的预期差异。实验中，研究人员邀请两组评估者（10名专家与30名非专业人士）对40份呈现不同咖啡色彩的图像样本进行评估。所有评估者均采用1-9分量表对全部40幅图像进行打分，打分维度涵盖偏好预期、品质、购买意向、风味浓郁度与风味口感，其中1代表最低程度，9代表最高程度。研究结果显示，两种照明条件以及两组评估者所得到的评估结果均存在显著差异。专家组更偏好高明度（lightness）与高彩度（chroma）的咖啡图像，并将此类图像与咖啡品质相关联。此外，黄色色调与甜味感知存在关联。两组评估者均认为，低明度的咖啡图像对应的咖啡风味偏苦。