White tea is a famous Chinese tea that is cooked at boiling point before drinking. The simultaneous distillation‐extraction (SDE) was used to collect volatile compounds during tea cooking. The SDE extract was dominated with green, floral, roasted and woody notes, and weak sweet note. There were 32 volatile compounds identified via gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis, and 19 of them had strong fragrance based on the gas chromatography‐olfactometry analyzed results. Hexanal, 2‐hexenal, cis‐3‐hexen‐1‐ol, and camphene were the main contributors to the green note. The floral note was mainly contributed by 2‐hexanone, benzeneacetaldehyde, trans‐linalool oxide, and linalool, and the sweet note was induced by trans‐β‐damascenone. The roasted note was mainly contributed by 2‐pentyl‐furan. The woody note was mainly contributed by trans‐α‐ionone and trans‐β‐ionone. Four putative reaction pathways, including amino acid degradation, carotene degradation, Maillard reaction, and glycosides hydrolysis, were figured out to explain the generation of aromatic‐active volatiles at high temperatures. This study added our knowledge on tea aroma under cooking as well as other thermal treatments.

Citrus fruits are mainly consumed as fresh fruit and processed juice products. They serve as nutritional and a tasty diet in our daily life. However, the formidable bitterness and delayed bitterness significantly impact the citrus industry attributable to the two major bitter compounds naringin and limonin. The extremely sour and acidic also negatively affects the sensory quality of citrus products. Citrus breeding programs have developed different strategies to improve citrus quality and a wealth of studies have aimed to uncover the genetic and biochemical basis of citrus flavor. In this minireview, we outline the major genes characterized to be involved in pathways shaping the sweet, bitter, or sour taste in citrus, and discuss briefly about the possible approaches to modify citrus taste by genetic engineering.

The aroma of an instant white tea (IWT) was extracted through simultaneous distillation–extraction (SDE) and analyzed by sensory evaluation, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-olfactometry (GC-MS-O), aroma reconstruction, omission test and synergistic interaction analysis. Sensory evaluation showed the IWT was dominated with floral and sweet notes. The SDE extract had the aroma similar to the IWT. The main volatile components in the SDE extract were benzyl alcohol, linalool, hotrienol, geraniol, α-terpineol, coumarin, camphene, benzeneacetaldehyde, 2-hexanone, cis-jasmin lactone and phenylethyl alcohol. GC-MS-O and aroma reconstruction experiments showed 16 aroma-active compounds. Linalool, trans-β-damascenone and camphene were the major contributors to floral, sweet and green notes based on flavor dilution analysis and omission test. Linalool and trans-β-damascenone had synergistic effect to promote floral and sweet notes. Camphene and trans-β-damascenone had synergistic effect to reduce green and sweet notes. The study helps to understand the aroma of IWT and antagonism interactions among aroma-active volatiles.