RESUMEN
The effects of rapid aging technology on aroma compounds and characteristic of white tea were investigated in comparison with natural aged white tea (NAWT) and fresh white tea (FWT). Volatile compounds of white teas were extracted using headspace-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME), and analyzed with gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) coupled with chemometrics. Aroma metabolites analysis showed that 40 compounds were identified to distinguish rapid aged white tea (RAWT) from others. Principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), heatmap analysis and Venn diagram demonstrated that alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, heterocyclics and alkanes exhibited significant variations. Quantitative descriptive analysis of white tea aroma showed that in RAWT, sweet and herbal aroma were significantly improved; whereas grassy green and delicate aroma declined sharply. This study provides a comprehensive investigation on aroma quality of RAWT, offering a potentially rapid way to produce aged white tea.