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Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin ›› 2024, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (27): 134-143.doi: 10.11924/j.issn.1000-6850.casb2024-0038

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Quality Analysis of Sichuan Dark Tea and Construction of Flavor Wheel

LIU Xiao1(), TANG Xiaobo1(), XIONG Yuanyuan1, MA Weiwei1, WANG Xiaoping1, WANG Yun1, LI Chunhua1, QIU Xingfen2, ZHANG Ting1()   

  1. 1 Tea Research Institute, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610066
    2 Mianyang Agriculture and Rural Bureau, Mianyang, Sichuan 621000
  • Received:2024-01-15 Revised:2024-04-24 Online:2024-09-24 Published:2024-09-24

Abstract:

To analyze the current quality status of Sichuan dark tea and provide data basis for improving the quality of Sichuan dark tea, 48 representative dark tea samples from Sichuan Province were selected as the survey subjects, and their sensory qualities and physicochemical components (tea polyphenols, amino acids, water extracts, caffeine, catechins, and tea pigments) were analyzed. The taste and aroma flavor wheels were plotted. The quality characteristics of Sichuan dark tea are mainly characterized by "strong" and "mellow". Its quality components include water extract content of 20.73%-44.93%, tea polyphenol content of 2.99%-15.94%, free amino acid content of 0.21% -1.83%, caffeine content of 1.13%-4.34%, tea polysaccharide content of 0.80%-3.19%, theoflavin content of 0.05%-0.29%, thearubigin content of 0.14%-4.98%, theabrownin content of 3.39%-14.35%, and total catechin content of 0.23%-9.85%. Principal component analysis shows that the main representative indicators of Sichuan dark tea are polyphenols, caffeine, and tea polysaccharides; when the critical value is 10, 48 samples are divided into 3 categories through cluster analysis. The flavor wheel indicates that the aroma types of Sichuan dark tea include aged aroma, sweet aroma, glutinous aroma, etc. The taste types include "strong", "mellow", "sweet", "thick", and "smooth", but a certain proportion of products have quality defects such as "sour", "burnt", "bitter", and "astringent". The overall quality of Sichuan dark tea is good, but the aroma of Sichuan dark tea products is not diverse enough. Therefore, it is recommended to strengthen independent breeding and moderate introduction of tea tree varieties with woody and medicinal aroma, and carry out targeted research on stacking technology that adapts to the characteristics of different regions based on the main varieties planted in Sichuan.

Key words: Sichuan dark tea, quality components, principal component analysis, cluster analysis, flavor wheel