Abstract
Wuyi Rock tea is one of well-known tea in China. The ‘Spring Tea Competition’ every year is a big event in tea industry of Wuyishan City. In this paper, 667 samples with four grades of Wuyi Rougui teas from ‘Spring Tea Competition, 2019’ were collected to determine quality indexes. The relationship between the quality index and tea grades was analyzed. The results showed that the higher the grade of teas, the higher the total quality score (TQS) of sensory evaluation. Most of tea quality indexes had the same tendency with TQS. The contents of tea polyphenols, soluble sugar, and catechins were significantly different between the different grades teas. PCoA showed that grades of teas could be effectively distinguished by the tea quality indexes. The contents of tea polyphenols, caffeine, epigallocatechin gallate, and epigallocatechin were significantly and positively correlated to TQS of sensory evaluation. These results suggested that higher content of multicomponents is the material basis of high quality tea. The tea polyphenols, caffeine and catechin can be used to evaluate the grade difference of Wuyi Rougui tea. The ratio of phenols to amino acids, ester catechins to non-ester catechins, and characteristic amino acids are important hallmark of the top tea.
Keywords:
Wuyi Rock tea; Rougui (Camellia sinensis); sensory evaluation; tea grade; quality index
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