Abstract: High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprints of seven grades of Xinyang Maojian tea were established using 41 samples. Based on 15 characteristic flavor components found in all samples, discriminant analysis (DA) was used to differentiate between grades of Xinyang Maojiao tea with nearly 100% accuracy. All seven fingerprint similarity calculation methods employed could reflect the difference between grades of tea, while the new improved extent similarity method was proved to be the best. The results of similarity calculation in grading of tea were consistent with the actual grades and allowed quantification of the difference between grades of tea.

Key words: Xinyang Maojian tea, flavor components, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint, discriminant analysis (DA), similarity evaluation