Adaptability of Different Tea Cultivar for Producing Flower-Fruit-scented TanYang Congou Black Tea

To investigate the processing adaptability of the main tea varieties cultivated in the Fuan region of Fujian for producing flower-fruit-scented TanYang congou black tea, 'Jin Mudan', 'Meizhan', 'Huang Guanyin', 'Fuyun 6', ' Fuyun 7', 'Fuan Caicha', 'Jin Guanyin' and 'Fuding Dahao' eight local tea varieties were selected in this study. Based on sensory evaluation and metabolite analysis, the potential for producing flower-fruit-scented TanYang congou black tea was assessed using a combination of hierarchical analysis based on gray relational analysis, membership function method and entropy-weighted TOPSIS method. The results showed that the black tea prepared from the fresh leaves of 'Jin Mudan' variety demonstrated the highest (92.45 scores) in the sensory evaluations, and the content of theanine, caffeine, EGCG, EGC and EC was 26.44, 42.64, 10.21, 8.66 and 2.21 g/kg, respectively. Furthermore, 70 volatile compounds were detected, and alcohols accounted for 57.36% with geraniol and linalool being particularly abundant. The analysis using the gray relational method and membership function method indicated that 'Jin Mudan' was located close to but not completely overlapping with Fuding Daba and 'Fuan Caicha', that highlighting its uniqueness, while 'Meizhan' showed some overlap with 'Fuyun 6' and 'Fuyun 7'. 'Jin Mudan', with its rich internal compounds and excellent sensory quality, demonstrates significant varietal advantages in the processing of flower-fruit-scented TanYang congou black tea, providing important scientific evidence for optimizing variety selection and quality control.