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This study's aim was to investigate a consumer's reactions to foods that are naturally atypically colored. Blue potatoes were used, and we characterized consumers who chose either familiar, yellow potatoes, or unfamiliar, blue potatoes. Volunteers (n = 235) were asked to rate their perceptions after tasting blue or yellow potato salad by using an 8‐point Likert scale. Second, they were asked to choose between yellow and blue potatoes and argue their choice. Subgroups were classified into “yellow potato choosers” (64.7% of participants) and “blue potato choosers” (28.1% of participants) and each evaluated yellow potato salad quite equally, but “yellow potato choosers” rated blue potato salad lower than “blue potato choosers.” “Blue potato choosers” tended to be more neophilic and middle‐aged compared to “yellow potato choosers.” “Yellow potato choosers” were traditional consumers who chose yellow potatoes because of their taste and familiarity. “Blue potato choosers” tended to be more hedonistic and variety‐seeking as their willingness to try new things and appearance of food seemed to be important factors behind their choice of atypically colored blue potatoes. Practical Applications This study demonstrated that an atypical color of an ordinary food product (potatoes) affected participants’ perceptions and choice in consumer research. Although most consumers preferred typically colored yellow potatoes, over a quarter of the participants were willing to choose blue potatoes. Quite differently behaving consumer groups were found by segmentation of the volunteers according to their choice between yellow and blue potatoes. For instance, naturalness is generally considered as one of the key attributes behind food choice, but among “blue potato choosers” in our study it was not an important factor behind their potato choice. Our findings can assist food scientists and product developers in understanding the impact of an atypical color – and more widely nonfamiliar characteristics present in foods – on the perception of food and food choice.

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The aim of the present study was to examine people's colour, music and emotion associations with dishes from two imagined restaurants. We conducted an experiment where we asked two study-participant groups to match interior colours, background music and desired emotional states for either a salad restaurant or a steak restaurant. To evoke associations we used two dish photos -a salad and a steak dish. The hypothesis was that the study participants would choose different background music and colours for different imagined restaurants. The results show that the most often selected colour, music and musically evoked and desired emotions in the salad group were Kiwi (lime colour) combined with Jazz, Pop and Soul music, and Peacefulness and Joyful Activation. In the steak group the selections were Bordeaux (dark-red colour) combined with Jazz and Classical music, and Peacefulness, Transcendence, Tenderness and Joyful Activation. The results were discussed in terms of articulation theory that is widely used in critical cultural studies. The differences between the groups showed that the study participants made different kinds of articulations: the answers in the steak group emphasized romantic classical music and luxury, while the salad group emphasized vital (healthy food, dancing) and hedonistic (joy, pleasure) values. The results indicate that: (1) generally people value peaceful eating environments; (2) people choose different visual and auditory stimuli for an eating environment depending on the food menu; and (3) customers, in this case, expect a connection to their previous cultural experiences with salad and steak restaurants. & 2016 AZTI-Tecnalia. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).