Probably the first thing you thought when Deep Blue beat world chess champ Garry Kasparov in 1997 was that it was only a matter of time before robots were pulling shots of espresso at your local cafe. Fast forward 26 years. A study by Park et al. (2023) pitted human baristas against a coffee-making robot. One group of consumers was assigned to “the robot experience” which amounted to watching the robot prep coffee. Another group watched a human barista brew coffee in the robot way. Robot-brewed coffee had a more consistent chemometric profile. There were not differences in consumer acceptance, but there were differences in which emotions were elicited. Human-brewed coffee elicited relatively more loving, nostalgic, warm, good natured, calm, tame, good, and tender emotions, whereas robot-brewed coffee elicited relatively more adventurous, worried, interested, pleasant, active, and aggressive emotions. Based on before/after surveys, consumers who had the robot experience decreased their food technology neophobia. Perhaps a future study could investigate how consumers respond to human baristas who do the robot (dance) while brewing coffee. While that study is being done, grab a cup of joe and check out these publications from members of the Compusense Academic Consortium.
Title: Robot versus human barista: Comparison of volatile compounds and consumers’ acceptance, sensory profile, and emotional response of brewed coffee
Authors: Seyeong Park, Min Kyung Park, JeongAe Heo, Ji-sun Hwang, Sungjae Hwang, Daekwang Kim, Seo-Jin Chung, Han Sub Kwak
Link: Robot versus human barista: Comparison of volatile compounds and consumers’ acceptance, sensory profile, and emotional response of brewed coffee
Title: Consumer testing away from a sensory facility: Application of home-use test and no-contact home-use test
Authors: Seyeong Park, JeongAe Heo, Jungmin Oh, Seo-Jin Chung, Han Sub Kwak
Link: Consumer testing away from a sensory facility: Application of home-use test and no-contact home-use test
Title: Delaying grapevine budbreak to prevent spring freeze damage impacts Lemberger wine flavour compounds under variable weather conditions
Authors: Meredith J. Persico, Donald E. Smith, Maria S. Smith, Helene Hopfer, Michela Centinari
Link: Delaying grapevine budbreak to prevent spring freeze damage impacts Lemberger wine flavour compounds under variable weather conditions
Title: The impact of personally relevant consumption contexts during product evaluations in virtual reality
Authors: Kym Man, Jeremy A. Patterson, Christopher Simons
Link: The impact of personally relevant consumption contexts during product evaluations in virtual reality
Title: Classification trees as machine learning tool to explore consumers’ purchasing decision pathway. A case-study on parent’s perception of baby food jars
Authors: Elizabeth Carrillo, Mónica González, Rubén Parrilla, Amparo Tarrega
Link: Classification trees as machine learning tool to explore consumers’ purchasing decision pathway. A case-study on parent’s perception of baby food jars
Title: Identification of Important Aroma Components and Sensory Profiles of Minimally Processed (Unroasted) and Conventionally Roasted Dark Chocolates
Authors: Marlon F. Ac-Pangan, Nick J. Engeseth, Keith R. Cadwallader
Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.3c01366
Title: Decreased retronasal olfaction and taste perception in obesity are related to saliva biochemical and microbiota composition
Authors: Paula Calvo López-Dávalos, Teresa Requena, M. Ángeles Pozo-Bayón, Carolina Muñoz-González
Link: Decreased retronasal olfaction and taste perception in obesity are related to saliva biochemical and microbiota composition
Title: Consumer response to wine made from smoke-affected grapes
Authors: Eleanor Bilogrevic, WenWen Jiang, Julie Culbert, Leigh Francis, Markus Herderich, Mango Parker
Link: Consumer response to wine made from smoke-affected grapes
Title: Transient acetaldehyde production by SO2-producing Saccharomyces cerevisiae promotes the survival of Oenococcus oeni during co-fermentation
Authors: Peter J. Costello, Radka Kolouchova, Jane McCarthy, Damian Espinase Nandorfy, Desireé Likos, Simon A. Schmidt
Link: https://oeno-one.eu/article/view/7306
Title: Coffee quality: Insights of Brazilian consumers from different sociodemographic levels combining modified Word Association and Maximum Difference Scaling (MaxDiff)
Authors: Paula T. S. Soares, Elson R. Tavares Filho, Mônica M. Pagani, Eliane T. Mársico, Adriano G. Cruz, Erick A. Esmerino
Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joss.12856
Title: Can flavour and texture defects of plant-based burger patties be mitigated by combining them with a bun and tomato sauce?
Authors: Karina Gonzalez-Estanol, Rebekah E. Orr, Joanne Hort, Markus Stieger
Link: Can flavour and texture defects of plant-based burger patties be mitigated by combining them with a bun and tomato sauce?
Title: When Does Milk Spoil? The Use of Rejection Threshold Methodology to Investigate the Influence of Total Microbial Numbers on the Acceptability of Fresh Chilled Pasteurised Milk
Authors: Mohammad Alothman, Phil J. Bremer, Karen Lusk, Patrick Silcock
Link: When Does Milk Spoil? The Use of Rejection Threshold Methodology to Investigate the Influence of Total Microbial Numbers on the Acceptability of Fresh Chilled Pasteurised Milk
Title: Characterization of the impact of chlorogenic acids on tactile perception in coffee through an inverse effect on mouthcoating sensation
Authors: Brianne M. Linne, Edisson Tello, Christopher T. Simons, Devin G. Peterson
Link: Characterization of the impact of chlorogenic acids on tactile perception in coffee through an inverse effect on mouthcoating sensation
Title: Reutilization of berry press residues in minced Baltic herring (Clupea harengus membras) – Effect on lipid oxidation and sensory characteristics during cold storage
Authors: Tanja Kakko, Annelie Damerau, Claudia Mejia Rios, Oskar Laaksonen, Baoru Yang
Link: Reutilization of berry press residues in minced Baltic herring (Clupea harengus membras) – Effect on lipid oxidation and sensory characteristics during cold storage
Title: Molecular mechanisms contributing to the development of beef sensory texture and flavour traits and related biomarkers: Insights from early post-mortem muscle using label-free proteomics
Authors: Yao Zhu, Ruth M. Hamil, Anne Maria Mullen, Alan L. Kelly, Mohammed Gagaoua
Link: Molecular mechanisms contributing to the development of beef sensory texture and flavour traits and related biomarkers: Insights from early post-mortem muscle using label-free proteomics