Making Sense of “Strong Coffee”: Taste, Meaning, and Everyday Consumption in Brazil

ABSTRACT This study explored how Brazilian consumers understand and use the expression “strong coffee” in everyday consumption. Grounded in social representations theory, a qualitative design was conducted with 35 in‐depth interviews. Data collection combined a sentence‐completion task with guided coffee tastings used as elicitation devices. The material was analyzed using the collective subject discourse approach. The results show that “strong coffee” is mainly objectified through sensory cues such as bitterness, dark color, roasted aroma, and body. However, these cues were interpreted ambivalently: strength was valued as presence and stimulation, rejected as excessive bitterness or poor quality, or conditionally accepted when moderated through practices such as sweetening, preparation adjustments, or food pairing. Overall, the findings indicate that “strong coffee” operates less as a fixed sensory attribute than as a context‐dependent cultural category shaping everyday coffee choices.