In three separate studies published recently in the scientific journal Food Quality and Preference, Fabiana Carvalho of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Charles Spence from the University of Oxford, UK, explored how the shape, the color and the texture, respectively, all have significant effects on how a drinker perceives various attributes of coffee before drinking, during drinking and after drinking. Led by a team of researchers in South America, the study found that, in general, coffee drinkers preferred a sample coffee when experiencing it at lower noise volumes. They were also more sensitive to characteristics such as flavor and aroma, and to specific attributes such as bitterness and acidity. Lastly, coffee drinkers experiencing lower noise volumes also said they would be more willing to purchase the control coffee.