Blending coffee white tea with flower flavor rooibos to mask the burnt flavor

Consumer preferences for rich flavor drive rapid growth in the new-style tea beverage market ($4.74 billion by 2030). Coffee-tea, a newly emerging product that integrates both coffee and tea flavor by blending process. While holding significant market promise, it faces a critical flavor challenge: burnt bitterness due to high-temperature coffee roasting (∼200 °C) and powerful adsorptive capacity of tea. This study innovatively employed cascaded improvement strategies to coffee white tea, with sensory evaluation and chemical analysis method, to mask burnt bitterness: 1) coffee bean roasting process optimization (220 °C, 12 min) to activated coffee aroma while achieving harmony flavor; 2) scenting process introduction to remove coffee beans that present bitterness; 3) Rooibos blending to mask burnt notes by introducing sweet-floral volatiles (lauric acid, etc.) and preserving key coffee aromas. This synergistic approach achieving burnt flavor masked and flavor balance in coffee-tea, offering a template for new-style tea beverages development.