Exploring the Mystery of the Sweetness of Baijiu by Sensory Evaluation, Compositional Analysis and Multivariate Data Analysis.

Yulu Sun,Ke Tang,Yue Ma,Shuang Chen,Yan Xu

doi:10.3390/foods10112843

Abstract

Sweetness is an important Baijiu quality marker, but there is limited research on it. In this study, the main contributors to Baijiu sweetness were identified by “sensomics” combined with “flavoromics”. A total of 43 volatile compounds (mostly esters) were found that appeared to contribute to Baijiu sweetness, through sensory-guided fractionation and compositional analysis. Correlation analysis between the volatile composition and perceived sweetness of 18 Baijiu samples with different sweet intensities identified 14 potential contributors. Additional testing verified that combining the 14 compounds reproduced Baijiu sweetness exactly, and omission testing identified ethyl hexanoate, hexyl hexanoate and ethyl 3-methylbutanoate as the major contributors to Baijiu sweetness. These findings not only broadened our understanding of Baijiu sweetness, but also highlighted the major contribution of volatile compounds to sweetness perception, knowledge which may facilitate future flavor modification of a wide variety of foods and beverages.

Highlights

Chinese Baijiu is one of the major distilled liquors in the world, alongside brandy, whiskey, vodka, rum, gin, etc. [1]
The sweetness of eighteen Baijiu samples, which were diluted with ultrapure water to the same ethanol content (50%, v/v), was rated using a scale from 0 to 15 by 12 well-trained panelists
The quality of the sensory data was evaluated by two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and it showed that there were significant main effects for sample, panelist and sample × panelist interaction (Table S2)

Summary

Introduction

Chinese Baijiu is one of the major distilled liquors in the world, alongside brandy, whiskey, vodka, rum, gin, etc. [1]. Compared with other distilled liquors, the production of Baijiu is a unique and complex process, which includes various raw materials (grains: sorghum, rice, wheat, or millet and Qu: grain-based starter culture); solid-state fermentation (saccharification and spontaneous fermentation under mixedculture conditions); distillation (directly from the solid-state fermentation); and aging (in pottery jars) [3]. This special manufacturing process produces the characteristic rich flavor of Baijiu [4]. Research on Baijiu flavor has mainly focused on analysis of the many aroma compounds [4,5], bitter and astringent compounds [5], and quantitative prediction of pungency [6]; to the best of our knowledge, no studies have been performed on the sweetness of Baijiu

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