Abstract
The quality of Congou black tea fluctuates greatly with the changing seasons. However, variations in the taste quality of Congou black tea manufactured during a single spring season are far from clear. Here, we analyzed the taste quality of HuangJinCha (HJC) Congou black tea using sensory evaluation and found the taste quality of black tea manufactured in the early spring was better than that manufactured in the late spring. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis for the data from the electronic tongue confirmed the variation and revealed that April 4 may be the critical time point at which variations in taste quality become apparent. The contents of tea polyphenols (TP), total catechins (TC), total flavones, (‐)‐epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), (‐)‐epicatechin gallate (ECG), and gallic acid (GA) showed increasing trends, whereas total amino acids (TAA) declined over time. Moreover, the variations in total amino acids (r = 0.846) and total flavones (r = ‐ 0.858) were highly significantly correlated with the average taste quality score (p < .01), suggesting these compounds were the primary factors responsible for the fluctuation in taste quality of Congou black tea processed during a single spring season.
Highlights
Tea is one of the most popular drinks worldwide, and 78% is consumed as black tea due to its health benefits and satisfactory sensory characteristics
We developed a sensory evaluation method combined with electronic tongue analysis to determine whether Congou black tea samples manufactured during different periods of the spring season possessed different taste quality
We found that the taste quality of HJC Congou black tea manufactured in the early spring was better than that in the late spring
Summary
Tea is one of the most popular drinks worldwide, and 78% is consumed as black tea due to its health benefits and satisfactory sensory characteristics. The taste quality of green tea manufactured during different plucking seasons has been widely reported (Dai et al, 2015; Liu et al, 2016; Xu, Song, Li, & Wan, 2012); few studies have described the seasonal variation on taste quality of Congou black tea, especially the variation that occurs within a single growing season. The taste quality of Congou black tea is ascribed to the distinct compounds in preharvest leaves from different time points, and to the activity of enzymes (including polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase) during postharvest processing. We developed a sensory evaluation method combined with electronic tongue analysis to determine whether Congou black tea samples manufactured during different periods of the spring season possessed different taste quality. After quantifying the contents of the main taste components in black tea samples, we correlated the variation of contents with taste quality scores and suggested several compounds responsible for the spring seasonal variation in taste quality
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