Mind Tricks: Why Your Coffee Might Taste Different Than You Think
Welcome! Here at Mumbai Coffee Collective, we love exploring everything about coffee. Your brain helps you remember smells, pay attention, and learn about coffee. But sometimes, your brain plays little tricks on you. These tricks can change how you think a coffee tastes, without you even noticing.
Knowing about these common mind tricks can help you taste coffee more fairly and enjoy it even more. Let's look at some of them.
Believing What You Expect (Confirmation Bias)
This is when you look for tastes you already think will be there. For example, if someone tells you a coffee is fruity, you might only notice the fruity taste and ignore others, like nutty or chocolatey taste.
Thinking Everything is Great (Halo Effect)
If you like one thing about the coffee (like the cool bag or the famous brand name), you might think everything else about it is great too, even if it's just okay.
Getting Stuck on the First Thing (Anchoring Bias)
The very first smell or taste you notice can heavily influence what you think afterwards. If a coffee smells super floral when you open the bag, you might keep thinking it's a very floral coffee overall, even if the taste is actually not floral.
Going with the Flow (Bandwagon Effect)
It's natural to agree with what most other people are saying, even if you don't really taste it yourself. If everyone else says the coffee tastes like caramel, you might just agree instead of saying you taste something different, like apples.
Thinking Everyone Likes What You Like (False Consensus Effect)
You might believe that other people must like the same kinds of coffee you do. If you love really funky coffee, you might think that's what makes coffee good for everyone and judge balanced or clean coffees poorly.
Place Matters (Context Effect)
Where you are drinking the coffee can change how good you think it tastes. Coffee might seem tastier when you're relaxed in a nice café than when you're busy and drinking it from a paper cup at work.
Order Changes Things (Sequencing Effect)
Tasting one coffee can change how you taste the next one. If you taste a few very sweet coffees first, the next coffee (which might be a little sweet) could taste not sweet at all, just because it came after the really sweet ones.
Ideas Put in Your Head (Priming Effect)
Hearing something about the coffee beforehand can change what you notice when you taste it. If someone tells you the coffee beans are very rare, you might think it tastes more special or unusual when you drink it.
Why Knowing This Helps
It's helpful to know about these mind tricks! It helps coffee experts judge coffee fairly, and it helps coffee lovers understand why they like certain coffees. When you know your brain might be playing tricks, you can pay closer attention to just the real taste of the coffee itself.
Taste More Clearly
Tasting coffee is a fun journey. Our brains don't always let us taste things as it is, and that's okay – these tricks are normal. But if you know about them, you can try to ignore the tricks and focus on the genuine taste in your cup.
Next time you brew a cup, perhaps one from our selection here at Mumbai Coffee Collective, take a moment. Ask yourself: Am I tasting just the coffee, or is my brain adding something extra? Happy exploring!
Reference: Sharipova Coffee - School of Education