Abstract: E Mei MaoFeng tea with chestnut-like aroma was processed under different temperature and time to change the intensity and type of the aroma. The treated teas and E Mei MaoFeng tea were classified into two types—teas with chestnut-like aroma and others without chestnut-like aroma, according to the organoleptic evaluation. After analysis on the differences of the two types of teas using Duncan’s multiple tests, principal component analysis was applied to observe and analyze the distribution of the selected aroma components and the tea samples. The results demonstrated that the teas with chestnut-like aroma included remarkably high contents of β-ionone, nerolidol, phytol, 1,4-eicosadiene, 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraenoic acid, ethyl ester, (all-Z)-, 2,6-di-tert-butylbenzoquinone, pentadecane,2-methyl-, heptadecane, hexadecane,2,6,10-trimethyl-, but the content of dodecanol,3,7,11-trimethyl- was remarkably lower than the later. The ten aroma components have a good effect of distinguishing the teas with chestnut-like aroma from those without chestnut-like aroma. On the other hand, nonanal, and cis-jasmone are also worthy of attention.

Key words: chestnut-like aroma, characteristic aroma components, analysis of variance, principal component analysis, aroma type