| Summary: | Consumers often identify “taste” as an important factor when selecting alcoholic beverages. Although it is assumed that reduced alcohol consumption in PROP super-tasters is due to a greater dislike of the nominally aversive sensations that they experience more intensely (e.g., bitterness) when compared to PROP non-tasters, this question has not been specifically asked to them. Therefore, we examined consumers’ self-reported aversion towards specific sensory attributes (bitter, hot/burn, dry, sour, sweet, carbonation) for four alcoholic beverage types (white wine, red wine, beer, spirits) using a convenience sample of U.S. wine consumers (<i>n</i> = 925). Participants rated 18 statements describing different combinations of sensory attributes and alcoholic beverages on a 5-point Likert scale (e.g., <i>Beer tastes too bitter for me</i>). Individuals who tended to agree more strongly with the statements (i.e., they were more averse; <i>p</i>(<i>F</i>) < 0.05) tended to (i) consume less of all beverage types, (ii) consume a higher proportion of white wine (<i>p</i>(<i>r</i>) < 0.05), and (iii) were more likely to be female or PROP super-tasters. The results suggest that self-reported aversion to specific sensory attributes is associated with not only lower overall intake of alcoholic beverages, but also a shift in the relative proportions of beverage type consumed; a key finding for studies investigating how taste perception impacts alcohol consumption.
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