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For hundreds of years, Taiwan has been famous for its various specialty teas. The sensory features of these teas have been well specialized and standardized through sensory evaluations performed by tea experts in yearly competitions throughout history. However, the question arises of whether young Taiwanese consumers, whose dietary behaviors have become Westernized, agree with the conventional sensory standards and association/postprandial concepts in the traditional tea market of Taiwan. To study young Taiwanese consumers’ ideas towards traditional specialty teas, this research recruited 109 respondents, younger than the age of 30, to taste seven Taiwanese specialty tea infusions of various degrees of fermentation, and their opinions were gathered by questionnaires composed of check-all-that-apply (CATA) questions and hedonic scales. Through statistical analyses, we found that several tea sensory attributes which were emphasized in experts’ descriptive sensory evaluations were not appreciated by the young Taiwanese people. Instead, tea aroma and late sweetness/palatable/smooth/refreshing mouthfeels were the most important sensory attributes contributing to their tea preference. Overall, there would generally be no problem in serving young Taiwanese consumers lightly-fermented oolong teas that generate the highest digestive and lowest heartburn postprandial perceptions.

Cereal Chem. 76(2):236-242Rice flour (37% moisture content) was used to examine the effects of feed rate and screw speed on the specific energy input during single-screw extrusion cooking. Torque, raised by decreasing screw speed or increasing feed rate, was found to be a power law function of the ratio of feed rate to screw speed (F r /S s ) with r 2 > 0.94. Specific mechanical energy (SME) calculated from torque also was a power law function of F r /S s with r 2 >0.84 and negative power law indices. The SME obtained was in the 225-481 kJ/kg range. Thus the extruder can be considered low shear. Increasing SME raised the die temperature and decreased both intrinsic viscosity and water absorption index (WAI). The degree of gelatinization and intrinsic viscosity of extrudates also were power law functions of F r /S s . The intrinsic viscosity correlated well with the degree of gelatinization, WAI, and cooking loss, and appeared to be a good index of the extrudate properties. Different screw profiles also affect torque measurement.

The market size of varied carbonated teas and bottled ready-to-drink tea products in Taiwan has surpassed that of traditional Taiwan tea with hot infusion. The consumption behavior of Taiwanese consumers for new and varied types of cold infusion tea products has also differed from that of traditional hot infusion ones. More kinds of Taiwan tea with different fermentation levels are gradually being used as raw materials for various cold infusion tea products. Therefore, to study consumers’ responses towards cold-brewed tea has become more important for the market of tea in Taiwan. This study recruited Taiwanese consumers to taste seven Taiwanese specialty tea infusions with various degrees of fermentation, and their opinions were gathered by questionnaires composed of check-all-that-apply (CATA), and temporal check-all-that-apply (TCATA) questions and hedonic scales. We found that both CATA and TCATA data agreed that the sensory features of unfermented and lightly semi-fermented tea infusions could be plainly distinguished from the ones of heavily semi-fermented and fully fermented teas based on correspondence analyses. Through CATA and TCATA, the sensory characteristics of the cold-brewed tea of various fermentation degrees could be clearly identified. The first-hand information of cold tea beverages analyzed through this study could be useful for the development of the market in Taiwan. The proper level of bitterness, astringency, fresh tea leaf flavor, and late sweetness were the essential qualities of cold infusions brewed from lightly fermented teas, which could be the best raw materials for production of cold tea beverages to satisfy as many consumers as possible.

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Forty fish meals and five fish soluble concentrates (FSC) imported to Taiwan were sampled to determine biogenic amines and histamine-forming bacteria. Average levels of water activity (0.8), water content (39.9%), salt content (7.32%), and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN) (150.7 mg/100 g) in FSC samples were significantly higher than those of fish meal samples, whereas the average levels of crude fat (3.94%) and crude protein (40.7%) in FSC samples were lower than those of fish meal samples. Thirty-five (87.5%) fish meal samples and 5 (100%) FSC samples had TVBN levels above the decomposition limit level of 30 mg/100 g in fresh fish meat. Average contents of putrescine, cadaverine, histamine, and tyramine in tested samples were higher than those of tryptamine, 2-phenylamine, spermidine, and spermine. Four fish meal samples (10%, 4/40) and 1 FSC sample (20%, 1/5) had histamine levels [20 mg/100 g. Five histamine-producing bacterial strains isolated from fish meal samples producing 1.31-6.21 ppm of histamine in trypticase soy broth supplemented with 1.0% L-histidine (TSBH) were identified as Bacillus licheniformis (three strains), B. amyloliquefaciens (one strain), and B. subtilis (one strain).

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The sensory qualities of Taiwanese teas are evaluated by the experts from the Tea Research and Extension Station (TRES) at tea competitions held annually. The prices of Taiwanese teas are also influenced by the results of these tea competitions. However, a tea winning an award and having a high sensory quality and price does not mean that it is liked by Taiwanese consumers. The check all that apply method (CATA) is a scientific method of sensory evaluation. It is able to evaluate the sensory characteristics with consumers and is cheap and time-saving. Twelve samples of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) Oolong tea made by the Taiwan Tea No. 12 cultivar were selected from the first Taiwanese GABA tea competition in 2020. The aim of this research was to study young Taiwanese consumers’ acceptability for GABA Oolong tea infusions, and their opinions towards the sensory qualities of teas through questionnaires composed of CATA questions and hedonic scales. Based on the results, the CATA method identified 21 important descriptive terms for GABA tea that were selected by over 20% of consumers. It was found that the consumers like GABA Oolong teas with 13 specific sensory characteristics, but dislike the ones with another 6 specific sensory characteristics. We conjecture that the different process of tea production will affect consumers’ preference for GABA Oolong tea. Overall, GABA Oolong tea has the same delightful sensory characteristics as traditional Taiwanese specialty Oolong teas, and is liked by the young Taiwanese consumers.