3. Results & discussion
3.1. Monadic profiling
ANOVAs show that in-mouth perception of samples was
different on three flavour attributes: cocoa, caramel and aftertaste
and on four texture attributes: deformation, melting, smooth and
powdery (Table 3).
Some attributes were strongly correlated: deformation and
perceived melting (r ¼ 0.96); smooth and powdery (r ¼ 0.92).
Indeed, the faster a shape melts, the more subjected to deformation
it is. Likewise, a sample, which was not perceived smooth, was
perceived powdery.
Unexpected results were also obtained. Firstly, cocoa and
aftertaste were not correlated meaning that a stronger cocoa
flavour perceived during the chocolate melting did not necessarily
contribute to a strong aftertaste. Secondly, cocoa intensity and
perceived melting were negatively correlated.
The first PCA biplot (Fig. 3) accounts for 75% of the variance. The
first principal component explains differences in perceived deformation
and melting. The second component mainly discriminates
samples according to their caramel intensity. The differences in
cocoa flavour are better illustrated on the biplot representing
components 1 and 3 (Fig. 4). Indeed the cocoa attribute is highly
correlated with the third component.