Environmental airflow promotes sweet taste formation in white tea: Insights from metabolomic, transcriptomic and...

While environmental airflow impacts white tea withering, its role in taste formation remains unclear. This study investigated the effects of appropriate airflow (AF, speed = 0.5 m/s) on the synthesis of taste-related metabolites by integrating metabolomics, transcriptomics, and microstructure analysis. Sensory evaluation results indicated that AF enhanced sweetness/freshness while reducing bitterness/astringency of white tea. AF altered water distribution, stomatal morphology and submicroscopic structure of withering leaves. In the early withering stage, apparent stomatal density, stomatal aperture, stomatal area index and cell wall/vacuole degradation of AF were significantly increased, which were accompanied by metabolic shifts. Bitter and astringent compounds (flavonoids and catechins) in AF decreased, while sweet compounds increased, which improved the sweetness of white tea. Transcriptome analysis further revealed the upregulation of key genes (SPP, SUS, UGP2, otsA, TREH) in starch and sucrose synthesis pathway. These multi-scale changes demonstrated how appropriate airflow promotes sweet taste formation in white tea, providing a scientific basis for precision withering control.