ZHANG Ting, LIU Xiao, XIONG Yuanyuan, WANG Xiaoping, HUANG Fan, WANG Yun, LI Chunhua, TANG Xiaobo, GUO Chengyi
The main quality components and the color change (L, a, b) of the tea infusion during the post-fermentation of Sichuan dark tea were analyzed and their relationship were also been explored. The results showed that the contents of free amino acids, tea polyphenols, catechins, epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), epicatechin gallate (ECG), theaflavins and thearubin decreased by 78.80%, 32.40%, 96.60%, 83.33%, 93.90%, 98.68%, 99.17%, 53.55% and 37.50% respectively. And the content of caffeine and tea polysaccharides increased by 23.71% and 3.51 times. Moreover, the content of water extract increased significantly in the first 7 d, and then gradually decreased; the content of theabrownin showed a downward trend in the first 7 d of post-fermentation, and then continues to increase, the whole post-fermentation increased by 110.65%. Except the content of quercetin-3-galactoside increased significantly after the end of post-fermentation, the total amount of flavonol glycosides and the content of other 7 components dropped significantly after the end of post-fermentation. Furthermore, the L value of tea soup gradually decreased in the process of post-fermentation, while the a value gradually increased, and the b value fluctuated higher. Correlation analysis showed that the L value had a very significant positive correlation with the content of amino acids, tea polyphenols, theaflavins, myricetin-3-galactoside, and the content of caffeine, tea polysaccharides, theabrownin and quercetin-3-glucoside very significant negative correlation, while the a and b values were opposite. Stepwise regression and path analysis showed that thearubin, theabrownin content and the total amount of flavonol glycosides were the main factors that directly affect the L value; and the theaflavins, thearubin content and the total amount of flavonol glycosides were the main factors that directly affect the a value. The content of tea polysaccharides, theabrownin, catechins and the total amount of flavonol glycosides were the main factors that directly affect the b value.