Orosensory responsiveness and alcohol behaviour

Profiling Individual Differences in Alcoholic Beverage Preference and Consumption: New Insights from a Large-Scale Study

“…Only a small percentage of the population sample liked spirits ("spirit lovers"), while most of the consumers liked alcoholic beverages with a lower alcohol content. Among these, two clusters have been identified, one preferring beers and wines ("beer/wine lovers"), which are notoriously characterized by sharp orosensory properties such as bitterness, sourness, and astringency [4], and one preferring non-alcoholic drinks and alcoholic drinks with intense sweet taste and/or mixers that moderate the perception of ethanol ("mild-drink lovers") [8]. However, gender, as well as age group distribution, were considerably different within the three consumers' segments.…”

“…We would have expected, rather, that this group had an increased perception of astringency that may act as hindrance to the consumption of beverages, mainly wine and beer, rich in compounds eliciting this mouthfeel sensation. In fact, Thibodeau et al [8] recently reported that individuals most responsive to sourness and astringency drank less alcohol. Astringency is an oral sensation difficult to detect and recognize [46,47], probably even more in subjects that usually do not drink alcoholic beverages characterized by this sensation.…”

“…With "mild-drink", we intended those beverages that either have no ethanol content (i.e., non-alcoholic aperitif) or contain alcohol but have an intense sweet taste (i.e., sweet spumante, passito wine, limoncello, and alcoholic aperitif). We assumed that these beverages elicit milder oral sensations than spirits, beer, and wine because of the reported cross-modal interaction of sweet taste on the perceived intensity of bitterness and of aversive sensations elicited by ethanol at high concentration [8].…”

“…Alcohol elicits multiple and complex oral sensations spanning from sweetness, bitterness, astringency, and a set of trigeminal sensations such as stinging, tingling, irritation, and burning [7]. Considering the substantial individual variation in sensory perception, oral sensation responsiveness may reasonably account for differences in alcohol consumption behavior [8].…”

“…This study further found that low consumption of beer was driven by bitter taste disliking. Thibodeau et al [8] evidenced that regardless of the type of oral sensation, the most responsive subjects tended to drink fewer alcoholic beverages. In a large-scale study, Fischer et al [14] found that consumers of alcoholic beverages perceived salt, sweet, and sour to be significantly less intense than non-drinkers, but after adjusting for age and gender the relation was significant only for salt and sweet.…”