Abstract
Geographical regions profoundly influence the flavor characteristics of Congou black tea (CBT). In this study, 35 CBT samples from 7 geographical regions were comprehensively characterized by integrated multiple intelligent sensory technologies and untargeted metabolomics analysis. A satisfactory discrimination was achieved through the fusion of multiple intelligent sensory technologies (R2Y = 0.918, Q2 = 0.859). A total of 104 non-volatile and 169 volatile metabolites were identified by UHPLC-HRMS and GC-MS, respectively. Of these, 45 critical differential non-volatile metabolites and 76 pivotal differential volatile metabolites were pinpointed based on variable importance in projection >1 and p < 0.05. Moreover, 52 key odorants with OAV ≥ 1 were identified, with hexanal, phenylacetaldehyde, linalool, β-cyclocitral, methyl salicylate, geraniol, α-ethylidene phenylacetaldehyde, and trans-β-ionone being recognized as the common odorants across 7 geographical regions. The results provide theoretical support for a comprehensive understanding of the effect of geographical regions on the flavor of black tea.
Keywords:
Congou black tea; Geographical region; Intelligent sensory technology; Multivariate statistical analysis; Untargeted metabolomics.