A dataset on concurrent and immediate retrospective measures of sensory perception and preferences of dark chocolates

Abstract

This article describes data related to the research paper entitled “Concurrent vs. retrospective temporal data collection: Attack-evolution-finish as a simplification of Temporal Dominance of Sensations?” [1]. Temporal sensory perception data of five dark chocolates that vary in cocoa content were collected from 129 consumers who evaluated the samples in two sessions, using a different sensory evaluation method in each session. A within-subject design was set-up to compare the two data collection methods: consumers in Panel 1 (36 men and 32 women aged 19 to 63 years old) started with the Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) method, and consumers in Panel 2 (35 men and 26 women aged 19 to 61 years old) started with the Attack-Evolution-Finish dominance (AEF-D) method. For each chocolate, consumers had to report the sensations they perceived either concurrently (TDS) or retrospectively (AEF-D) to the tasting. After the descriptive task, consumers were asked to rate their liking for chocolates on a 9-point discrete scale. Finally, consumers had to answer questions related to the difficulty of the descriptive task. The dataset includes information on consumers’ gender, age and frequency of consumption of dark chocolates. The dataset can be reused by sensometricians to compare methods or develop new statistical models for data analysis. It can also be reused to compare at the individual level declarative sensory measures collected either concurrently or retrospectively to tasting. Thus, the impact of cognition (due to memorization, stress or complexity of measurements) on sensory description and liking can be investigated. More specifically, this dataset can be help understand how the dynamics of perception of texture, mouthfeel and flavour attributes are integrated when using static measures.