Descriptive Analysis of Cola and Lemon/Lime Carbonated Beverages

Obesity trends have increased product development efforts to replace bulk sweeteners with alternative sweetening systems without changing the full calorie sensory experience. Sweetness and bitterness intensities and temporal properties of alternative sweetening systems have been investigated. However, mouthfeel characteristics of carbonated beverages sweetened with alternative sweetening systems compared with bulk sweeteners are not well defined. The objectives of this research were to (1) quantitatively characterize mouthfeel attributes in carbonated beverages, and (2) investigate the halo-attribute dumping effect of rating mouthfeel attributes exclusively from other sensory attributes in the modalities of aroma, aroma-by-mouth, taste, and afterfeel. Twelve panelists completed a 2-part training procedure to apply descriptive profiling to cola and lemon/lime carbonated beverages. In part 1, the training focused on describing mouthfeel attributes in 14 commercial carbonated beverages. Bite, burn, numbing, carbonation, astringent, body, and mouthcoating were identified as significant mouthfeel attributes. Diet cola-flavored carbonated beverages were perceived as having significantly less astringent, body, and mouthcoating compared to regular carbonated beverages in contrast to diet and regular lemon/lime beverages. In part 2, the training focused on describing aroma, aroma-by-mouth, taste, and afterfeel modalities in addition to mouthfeel of 9 commercial carbonated beverages. Perceived bite, burn, carbonation, and mouthcoating increased when the beverages were rated for mouthfeel attributes alone compared to when beverages were rated for all attributes demonstrating a halo-attribute dumping effect. These sensory results are also a critical 1st step in the process of determining the underlying physical/chemical property differences among carbonated beverages with different types of sweeteners.