Tea stems are a type of tea by-product, and a considerable amount of them is discarded during picking, with their value often being overlooked. To enhance the utilization of tea stems, we investigated the effects of different expansion temperatures on the non-volatile compounds of tea stems. The results showed that the contents of EC, EGC, EGCG, tea polyphenols, and amino acids all decreased with the expansion temperature, while the contents of GA and C increased. The best effect was observed at 220 °C for 20 s. Additionally, as the temperature increased, the umami and aftertaste of astringency values of tea stems decreased, and the value of bitterness increased. Meanwhile, the value of sweetness decreased first and then increased. EGC was identified as the key differential compound of tea stems at different temperatures. In this investigation, determining the optimum expansion temperature was deemed advantageous for enhancing the flavor quality of tea stems, consequently elevating the utilization efficacy of tea stems and tea by-products.
Keywords: expansion; metabolomics; tea stems; temperature.