Distinct variation in taste quality of Congou black tea during a single spring season

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. K E Y W O R D Sblack tea, electronic tongue, sensory evaluation, spring season, taste quality

Relationship between the Grade and the Characteristic Flavor of PCT (Panyong Congou Black Tea)

“…The levels of amino acids exert a significant sensory effect on fresh and sweet taste of tea products. Yu et al [ 43 ] also reported that the free amino acid content was positively correlated with the tea grade, consistent with our results.…”

“…TPs exert various effects on health including anticancer activity and preventive effects on diabetes and cardiovascular diseases [ 44 ], and they are important components that affect the formation of a sweet aftertaste, thick, strong, refreshing, and bitter tastes of tea infusions [ 43 ]. Figure 3 a shows that SG contained the highest TP content (13.58%), which was approximately twice that in 3G (8.06%).…”

Gibberellin Increases the Bud Yield and Theanine Accumulation in Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze

“…Free amino acids were detected using a e2695 Waters HPLC system (Waters, Milford, MA, USA) with the AccQ-Fluor Reagent Kit (Waters, catalog # WAT052880) according to the manufacturer’s specifications [ 6 ]. A Waters AccQ-Tag reversed-phase HPLC column (150 mm × 3.9 mm, 5 μm) was used at a flow rate of 1.0 mL·min −1 .…”

“…In market, the consuming tea categories were mainly composed of the green tea, black tea, white tea, dark tea, yellow tea and oolong tea according to the tea processing method. Among them, the consumption of green tea is the second largest tea category after black tea that reaches 8.8 × 10 5 tons per year (http://www.statista.com, accessed on 19 April 2021) [5,6]. Compared with other tea categories, green tea is rich in theanine, thus the content of theanine in green tea has gained more concern.…”

In vitro enzymatic synthesis of a monomeric theaflavin using a polyphenol oxidase isozyme from tea (Camellia sinensis) leaf

“…Non‐galloylated catechins mainly include catechin (C), gallocatechin (GC), epicatechin (EC) and epigallocatechin (EGC), whereas galloylated catechins mainly include epicatechin gallate (ECG), epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), catechin gallate (CG) and gallocatechin gallate (GCG, Figure S1a) (Gadkari & Balaraman, 2015). Many studies have validated the contributions of catechins to tea taste and function (Liang et al ., 2016; Yu et al ., 2020). Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) can catalyse the oxidation of catechins to form high‐molecular‐weight polyphenols during the processing of black tea (Yu et al ., 2019).…”