The combined use of temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) and discrete time-intensity (DTI) to describe the dynamic sensory profile of alcoholic cocktails

Abstract

Abstract Time Intensity (both continuous-TI and discontinuous-DTI) and Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) represent the main methodologies for describing the temporal evolution of the different sensations developing during food consumption. Sensory description from these methods relies on different aspects of perception, time-intensity covers the time course of selected sensation intensity while TDS describes the profile in terms of dominant sensations and their temporal sequence. Data collection on both these aspects would provide a more comprehensive description of the dynamic sensory profile. In this work, a new approach combining TDS and DTI methodologies is presented with the aim to: 1) describe the time course of dominant sensations and their relevant intensities in alcoholic beverages; 2) propose new graphical tools to facilitate the observation of changes in the intensities of dominant sensations over time within and between products. The TDS profile of alcoholic cocktails was described by trained assessors. TDS curves of each product were visually inspected, the significantly dominant attributes were selected considering three evaluation intervals: attack 0–30 s; evolution 31–60 s; finishing 61–90 s. Meaningful points for intensity evaluation were identified considering the times at which the dominant attributes were close to their maximum DR value in each time interval. The same panel was further trained to perform the DTI task consisting in the evaluation of the intensity of the dominant attributes at the selected time points. The proposed approach described the product dynamic profiles in terms of the time course of dominant attributes intensities. The dynamic spider plot was proposed as a new graphic representation to illustrate and compare the evolution of the intensity of dominant attributes along attack, evolution, and finishing within and across products.