CHAPTER 15: An Emotion Lexicon for the Coffee Drinking Experience

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages worldwide, rooted in tradition with millions of devoted followers. While there has been copious research about the sensory and chemical aspects of coffee and coffee beans, we know surprisingly little about the consumer psychology during coffee consumption. What are people really feeling when they drink a cup of coffee? Emotions are a big part of the consumer experience, particularly with something as culturally entrenched as coffee. This current research identifies and assesses the feelings that are stimulated by the coffee drinking experience through the development of a 44-term consumer-generated emotion lexicon using the EsSense Profile® as a baseline. Twenty-seven new terms were generated and 17 terms were retained from the EsSense Profile®. A further analysis of the lexicon indicated that Awake, Boosted, Energetic, Jolted, Jumpstart, Pleased, Productive, Relaxed, Rewarded, Satisfied, Soothing and Warm were used most frequently by the participants. All were positive terms and four terms (shown in italics) belonged to the EsSense Profile®. This lexicon could be used as a starting point to observe how emotions differ among coffee drinkers around the world.