A 500-person coffee and syrup taste test run simultaneously in London and New York

A leading global syrup brand wanted to know which coffee and syrup combinations consumers and professionals prefer, and whether those preferences hold across two very different coffee cultures. What works in a flat white in Shoreditch may fall flat in Soho, New York: sweetness expectations, the flavours baristas reach for and the way syrups interact with local coffee styles all shift across the Atlantic. The client needed evidence to shape its flavour portfolio, product development roadmap and go-to-market positioning in the UK and the US, not a simple preference ranking.

MindMarket designed and delivered a central location taste test in both cities at the same time, so method and timing were identical. 500 participants over ten days: 250 per city, 200 consumers and 50 industry professionals (baristas and bartenders) in each. Every participant took a structured fifteen-minute session tasting five coffee and syrup combinations, with the same temperatures, serving sizes and evaluation framework in both locations so the two datasets could be compared as one. Teams of five interviewers per location ran the sessions. Recruitment was done on the street, outside coffee shops and studios around Brick Lane in London and in Manhattan's busiest neighbourhood in New York, to reach the right mix of everyday coffee drinkers and trade professionals.

The study revealed distinct preference patterns between London and New York, the kind of difference a single-market study would have missed, with UK participants leaning to subtler, less sweet profiles and New York participants to bolder, more indulgent combinations. Consumers and professionals did not always agree: the syrup baristas rated highest was not always the one consumers reached for first. The client received a dual-perspective dataset, what professionals recommend and what consumers choose, and a clear roadmap for which flavours to prioritise in each market, how to communicate them to trade and consumer audiences, and where to focus new product development.