Abstract: This study aimed to understand the change of aroma components during flowery black tea processing. One bud with two or three leaves from tea populations in Huangsan Mountain were used to produce Congou black tea by the traditional process or flowery black tea through withering, rocking, rolling, fermentation and drying. The change of aroma components during the processing of the teas was analyzed by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results indicated that there were significant differences in geraniol, methyl salicylate and geranylacetone between flowery black tea and Congfu black tea. The contents of methyl salicylate, alpha-cadinol and, trans-2-hexenyl hexanoate were increased during rocking. During fermentation, the contents of benzaldehyde and geraniol were increased. The contents of 3,7-dimethyl-1,5,7-octatriene-3-ol, (E,E)-2,4-nonadienal, cis-3-hexenyl hexanoate were increased during drying. During the whole process, the contents of (E)-2-octenal, phenacetaldehyde, and benzyl alcohol were changed greatly. The contents of (E,E)-2,4-nonadienal, (E,E)-2,4-decadienal, hexanoic acid, (Z)-3-hexenyl ester , hexanoic acid, and (E)-2-hexenyl ester were also increased whereas the contents of geraniol, methyl salicylate, and alpha-cadinol were decreased.

Key words: black tea, aroma composition, process, HS-SPME, GC-MS