03/09/2026
I taste coffee in colours.
Since 2017, we have more formally incorporated the multisensory perception of flavour into how we communicate about coffee, particularly through vision and touch.
For a long time, colour has been part of how we describe the taste profiles of our coffees, both in the café and online. For me, colour is not simply decoration. It is another way of communicating what a coffee might be perceived as and taste like.
We have also explored how other sensory elements can influence our experience of coffee. We have made cups in different weights, colours and shapes, choosing forms that we believe can strengthen the fruity, bright flavours we often look for in both filter coffee and espresso.
This way of thinking has also been shaped by our work with dr. Fabiana Carvalho and her research into multisensory perception. Her research helped us understand more about how what we see, touch and feel can influence how we experience flavour. We worked with Fabiana while helping Matt Winton compete for Drop Coffee at the World Barista Championship in 2018, and I have also explored how groups of roasters perceive our coffees in relation to different colours, with her help, at CRG Roasters camp.
Over the years, this has become an increasingly natural part of how we think about coffee at Drop.
Coffee is not experienced through taste alone. The way a coffee looks, the cup we drink it from, the weight in our hand, and even the colours around us can all become part of the experience.
This is one of the reasons colour has become such an important part of the Drop Coffee identity, and why it felt natural for colour to play such a big role in the new packaging.
If you like to read more about the packaging, you can find it under “news” at dropcoffee.com , link in our bio.
/Joanna Alm Leighton,
Managing Director
