Understanding the Sensory Attributes Important to a Dark Chocolate Consumer

2 Background Dark chocolate became trendy in the consumer market The Sensory group wanted provide usable guidance to Produce Developers if they ever pursued a dark chocolate product.

3 Three Sensory Studies with Dark Chocolate Consumers Focus GroupsTo understand which attributes we should be studying Screening DesignTo determine the relative contributions of cocoa resin, cocoa intensity, and sweetness to overall liking and consumer expectations Optimization DesignTo optimize both consumer expectation and liking of the two relevant attributes.

4 Attributes identified from Dark Chocolate Focus Groups Cocoa Resin Cocoa Intensity Sweetness Color Thickness

5 Screening Design LowHigh Cocoa ResinMilk Hershey’s Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Dark Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Intensity Low 2% cocoa Moderate 8% cocoa Sweet Intensity Slight 5% sucrose Moderate 10% sucrose

6 Test Design 100 consumers participated in the study Each participant tasted 5 of the 9 samples Samples were served in styrofoam cups with lids to disguise color Two ratings per sample: –Rate the overall acceptability of this sample (9 point scale: 1=dislike extremely, 5=neither like nor dislike, 9=like extremely) –Do you consider this sample dark chocolate? Yes or No (circle one)

7 Results of Screening Design If cocoa intensity high More people identified the sample as dark chocolate But, overall liking was lower If sweetness was high Slightly higher percentage identified sample as dark chocolate Overall liking was higher The choice of the different cocoas had no effect No effect on whether sample was called dark chocolate Overall liking did not change

8 Results of Screening Design At least 80% of panel Identified sample as dark chocolate

9 Optimization Design 5 samples with varying levels of cocoa and sweet Used a blend of the two types of cocoas, since cocoa type was not a factor Used response surface methodology for optimization

10 Optimized sample fit inside the original screening design and is likely to be optimal balance between the liking/dark chocolate expectation.

11 * Means that share a letter are not significantly different at the 95% confidence level. Overall Liking Dark Chocolate Creamy Milk Chocolate Among Dark chocolate lovers (n=50)6.9 a5.5 b All Respondents (n=108)5.8 a 5.5 a Among Milk chocolate lovers (n=58)4.8 b 5.6 a Dark Chocolate Consumer Testing Results

12 The End