Effect of Sun-exposure before Moisture-yellowing on the Aroma of Yellow Tea
To further elucidate the impact of"sun-exposure"and"moisture-yellowing"as well as their interaction,based on low-temperature treatment of fresh leaves,on the aroma quality of yellow tea,this paper used fresh tea leaves with a bud and one leaf picked from'Jin Xuan'variety and then treated at a low temperature of 5℃ for 18 h as raw material.Different durations of sun-exposure before moisture-yellowing,moisture-yellowing,and their combined processing techniques were set up.The tea samples were analyzed by the sensory evaluation and headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(HS-SPME-GC-MS)methods.The results showed that the optimal quality of yellow tea was obtained by sun-exposure to the leaf for 0.5 hours under the environmental conditions of light intensity 1700±50 μmol·m-2·s-1,outdoor temperature 35±5 ℃,and air humidity 30%±5%,and then moisture-yellowing for 3 hours at a temperature of 45 ℃ and humidity of 70%.Compared with the control tea sample that was only moisture-yellowing for 3 hours,the optimal tea sample increased the total amount of aroma substances by 91.26%.The contents of sweet,floral,and fruity aroma compounds such as ketones,aldehydes,alcohols,and esters were 6.18,5.55,3.79,and 2.99 times that of the control sample,respectively.Meanwhile,the content of sulfur-containing components with green fragrance was reduced by 26.72%.The results led to the enhancement of the aroma concentration of'Jin Xuan'yellow tea and promoted the transformation of its fragrance type.At the same time,there was an interaction between sun-exposure and moisture-yellowing.On the one hand,sun-exposure could effectively shorten the duration of moisture-yellowing,and on the other hand,moisture-yellowing was also conducive to removing the fishy smell that may be brought by sun-exposure and also further promoted the improvement of the aroma quality of'Jin Xuan'yellow tea.