Understanding perceptions of unfamiliar drinks using natural language in simulated drinking contexts

How do people make sense of new foods and beverages? Hop water is a recent example of a novel beverage category, advertised as either an alcohol-free, zero-calorie beer alternative or a more “natural” alternative to flavored seltzers. This study aimed to understand what individual or contextual factors may cause consumers to perceive hop water as more beer-like or more seltzer-like. Participants (43 regular seltzer-drinkers, 41 regular beer-drinkers, 45 people who regularly drink beer and seltzer, and 68 people who do not regularly drink either) tasted three commercially-available hop waters in one of three drinking contexts (apartment garden, outdoor bar, or office breakroom) simulated using 360° video projection. A series of open-ended questions elicited descriptions of product perception, similar products, and potential drivers of (dis)liking.

Parallel to this, we analyzed descriptions of typical beers, seltzers, and other drink categories from 518 online survey responses with Correspondence Analysis to define a Beverage Category Space. This allowed us to calculate beer-likeness and seltzer-likeness scores for common vocabulary words. The descriptions given during immersive tasting were projected into the Beverage Category Space as supplemental variables to determine their beer-likeness and seltzer-likeness. In the bar, participants more often compared the drinks to beer, while in the breakroom, participants focused more on carbonation. Regular beer-drinkers described the products as less beer-like than regular seltzer-drinkers. These findings suggest that consumers tasting unfamiliar products may assimilate expectations cued by eating or drinking context, but experience contrast effects from expectations based on similar familiar products.