New trends in the coffee consumption assessment: organoleptic characteristics and chemical analysis evaluated through a choice experiment.

The consumers’ preferences for the coffee consumption are analyzed with an innovative approach, which integrates a choice experiment with consumer sensory tests and chemical analyses (caffeine and antioxidants by HPLC). Through a choice experiment and modeling, consumers’ preferences are analyzed with respect to the attributes of price, type of coffee (blend Arabica-Robusta and 100% Arabica), packaging, indication of origin and certifications related to the product sustainability. Actually, the same choice experiment has been administered in two consecutive time occasions, e.g. before and after the sensory test, in order to analyze the role of tasting in the determination of the consumers’ preferences. All these elements, e.g. the attributes involved in the choice experiment, the scores obtained for each coffee from the sensory test and the HPLC analyses, are involved in the modeling step to better evaluate the consumers’ behavior relating to the coffee consumption.