Characterization of Roasting Time on Sensory Quality, Color, Taste, and Nonvolatile Compounds of Yuan An Yellow Tea

Molecules. 2022 Jun 27;27(13):4119. doi: 10.3390/molecules27134119.

Abstract

Roasting is crucial for producing Yuan An yellow tea (YAYT) as it substantially affects sensory quality. However, the effect of roasting time on YAYT flavor quality is not clear. To investigate the effect of roasting time on the sensory qualities, chemical components, odor profiles, and metabolic profile of YAYTs produced with 13 min roasting, 16 min roasting, 19 min roasting, 22 min roasting, and 25 min roasting were determined. The YAYTs roasted for 22 min got higher sensory scores and better chemical qualities, such as the content of gallocatechin (GC), gallocatechin gallate (GCG), free amino acids, solutable sugar, meanwhile the lightness decreased, the hue of tea brew color (b) increased, which meant the tea brew got darker and yellower. YAYTs roasted for 22 min also increased the contents of key odorants, such as benzaldehyde, nonanal, β-cyclocitral, linalool, nerol, α-cedrol, β-ionone, limonene, 2-methylfuran, indole, and longiborneol. Moreover, non-targeted metabolomics identified up to 14 differentially expressed metabolites through pair-wise comparisons, such as flavonoids, phenolic acids, sucrose, and critical metabolites, which were the main components corresponding to YAYT roasted for 22 min. In summary, the current results provide scientific guidance for the production of high quality YAYT.

Keywords: Yuan An yellow tea; aroma; color; non-targeted metabolomics; roasting time; taste flavor.

MeSH terms

  • Hot Temperature
  • Odorants / analysis
  • Taste*
  • Tea / chemistry
  • Volatile Organic Compounds* / analysis

Substances

  • Tea
  • Volatile Organic Compounds

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the China agriculture research system of MOF and MARA (CARS-19), the open project of Guangdong provincial key laboratory of tea plant resources innovation and utilization (No. 2020KF07), the science of and technology project of Hubei province (2020BBA038), Key technology research and demonstration project of summer and autumn tea processing and efficient utilization in Dabie mountain area, Key technology research and application demonstration of green ecological production of characteristic summer and autumn tea, the agricultural science and technology innovation center of Hubei province (2019-620-000-001-24).