Flavor and chiral stability of lemon-flavored hard tea during storage

Flavor stability of hard tea beverage was investigated over eight weeks of storage. The volatile compounds were analyzed using solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) and two-dimensional GC-MS. Quantitative analysis showed that the concentrations of linalool, citronellol, geranial, neral, geraniol, and nerol decreased dramatically during storage, whereas α-terpineol showed an increasing trend during storage. Heart-cut two-dimensional GC-MS (2D-GC-MS) chirality analysis showed that (R)-(+)-limonene, (R)-(-)-linalool, (S)-(-)-α-terpineol and (S)-(-)-4-terpineol dominated in the fresh hard tea samples, however, the configuration changed during storage for the terpene alcohols. The storage conditions did not change the configuration of limonene. A conversion of (R)-(-)-linalool to (S)-(+) form was observed during storage. Both (S)-α-terpineol and (S)-4-terpineol dominated at beginning of the storage, but (R)-(+)-α-terpineol became dominated after storage, suggested in addition to isomerization from (S)-α-terpineol, other precursors could also generate α-terpineol with (R)-isomer preference.