Consumer understanding of beer and wine body: An exploratory study of an ill-defined concept

Ivanova, Natalja; Yang, Qian; Bastian, Susan E.P.; Wilkinson, Kerry L.; Ford, Rebecca

Abstract

Body is a key sensory characteristic for beverage acceptability, drinkability and an important consideration when making a purchase decision. Evidence suggests that consumers perceive low-alcohol beverages as lacking body. Despite the significance of body, little is known about consumer's understanding of the term. This paper employed a qualitative approach to gain insights into regular beer and wine consumers' understanding of beer and wine body in the UK. Focus group (FG) and the Free Choice Description (FCD) techniques helped explore the term with frequent beer and wine consumers (n = 90). In contrast with most research within alcoholic beverages which has focused on body perception as a one-dimensional viscosity component, this paper identified other sensory characteristics and compositional factors for both beer and wine that were perceived to contribute to body perception from a consumer perspective. It was evident from the present exploratory study that body constituted several modalities, including flavour, mouthfeel and aroma. Other essential factors for beer and wine body perception included appearance and overall beverage quality. It was also demonstrated that specific flavours, including dark fruit (blackberry, cherry, plum), citrus and tropical fruit flavours, Maillard reaction and cereal, as well as the barrel-age flavours (chocolate, coffee, caramel, smoke, grain, oak, roasted malt) were important for body perception. Mouthfeel attributes, such as velvety, smooth, and creamy, were also perceived to be responsible for body perception in beer and wine. Overall, findings from this study are compared across beverage types to provide direction to researchers and new-product developers on the key factors contributing to body perception from the consumer perspective.

Citation

Ivanova, N., Yang, Q., Bastian, S. E., Wilkinson, K. L., & Ford, R. (2022). Consumer understanding of beer and wine body: An exploratory study of an ill-defined concept. Food Quality and Preference, 98, Article 104383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104383

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 3, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Sep 6, 2021
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Sep 9, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 7, 2022
• Journal: Food Quality and Preference
• Print ISSN: 0950-3293
• Electronic ISSN: 0950-3293
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 98
• Article Number: 104383
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104383
• Keywords: Nutrition and Dietetics; Food Science
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/6190398
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0950329321002652?via%3Dihub