The market size of varied carbonated teas and bottled ready-to-drink tea products in Taiwan has surpassed that of traditional Taiwan tea with hot infusion. The consumption behavior of Taiwanese consumers for new and varied types of cold infusion tea products has also differed from that of traditional hot infusion ones. More kinds of Taiwan tea with different fermentation levels are gradually being used as raw materials for various cold infusion tea products. Therefore, to study consumers' responses towards cold-brewed tea has become more important for the market of tea in Taiwan. This study recruited Taiwanese consumers to taste seven Taiwanese specialty tea infusions with various degrees of fermentation, and their opinions were gathered by questionnaires composed of check-all-that-apply (CATA), and temporal check-all-that-apply (TCATA) questions and hedonic scales. We found that both CATA and TCATA data agreed that the sensory features of unfermented and lightly semi-fermented tea infusions could be plainly distinguished from the ones of heavily semi-fermented and fully fermented teas based on correspondence analyses. Through CATA and TCATA, the sensory characteristics of the cold-brewed tea of various fermentation degrees could be clearly identified. The first-hand information of cold tea beverages analyzed through this study could be useful for the development of the market in Taiwan. The proper level of bitterness, astringency, fresh tea leaf flavor, and late sweetness were the essential qualities of cold infusions brewed from lightly fermented teas, which could be the best raw materials for production of cold tea beverages to satisfy as many consumers as possible.
Keywords: CATA; TCATA; cold infusion; consumers’ acceptance; degrees of fermentation; tea.