Beverages

Nitrogen nutrition is one of the most effective cultural practices in vineyards. The vine nitrogen status influences the berries’ quality characteristics and the produced wines. The current study investigated the effect of traditional nitrogen fertilization in the form of ammonium sulfate compared to nitrogen fertilization coupled with the nitrification inhibitor 3,4-Dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) on the agronomic characteristics of grapes and the produced wines of the white variety Savvatiano from a productive vineyard in the Attiki region. Must and wine quality was evaluated by a chemical analysis and sensorial evaluation by trained panelists. The different forms of nitrogen fertilizers did not significantly affect the aroma and sensory profile in contrast to unfertilized grapevines. In addition, the applied fertilization increased some important aroma compounds in the wine, compared to no fertilization. The significance of this work is to add information about the effect of nitrogen fertilization on the wine volatile composition of the Greek white grapevine Savvatiano. Full article

The coffee extraction methods modify the structure of the foam (when it is present) and the sensory profile of the beverage. In this research, three ways of extracting and two varieties of 100% Arabica were compared. Nineteen bars and fifteen bars were applied to the coffee thanks to the use of compatible capsules and machines. The method with the moka was considered, which acts at low pressures and does not allow the formation of foam (crema). In addition, the Brazil and Guatemala Arabica varieties were considered to understand the extent to which Arabica coffee can respond in structural and sensorial terms to the extraction techniques applied. The results show that 19-bar espresso coffees have a very stable crema with very small bubbles, which give a uniform and fine structure to the coffee crema. On the contrary, the pressure at 15 bars generates more unstable foams and bubbles that tend to be disproportionate, with more marked effects in the Brazil variety. The sensory profiles of the coffees respond to the extraction techniques applied. While the coffee extracted with the moka has sensory descriptors with rather low values, those obtained at 19 and 15 bars have much wider profiles. In conclusion, different pressure intensities to the coffee extraction affect the quality of crema and the solubilization of organoleptically active compounds. Full article

Wine label information is an important aid for consumers in making purchase decisions. However, the influence of label information types in the context of sparkling wines is poorly understood, despite the global growth of this product class. Using an online survey of 576 Ontario sparkling wine consumers, we sought to examine this knowledge gap using two complementary approaches. First, participants were presented with a set of two mock sparkling wine labels, selected at random, from a set of eight conditions. One condition (control) contained all seven of the information types previously identified (endorsements, parentage, attributes, target end use, target end user, manufacture, nonpareil), whereas the other seven omitted one of each of these elements. Respondents then rated their willingness to buy, willingness to pay, and the perception of quality. Lastly, they self-rated the importance placed on 14 different label information statements when purchasing sparkling wine (5-point Likert scale from 1–not at all important to 5–extremely important). Results show that including a description of the wine’s sensory attributes on sparkling wine labels is important to consumers overall, except for those with a high subjective knowledge of sparkling wine, and those who normally spend more than CAD 30 per bottle, as these groups are more willing to buy, willing to pay, and rate their perception of quality higher for labels that do not include attribute information. Grape variety/blend and production region information are rated high in importance. Alcohol content is more important to young consumers and those who prefer Prosecco-style sparkling wines, whereas vintage/year is more important to consumers who prefer Champagne-style sparkling wines. Expert endorsements are rated low in importance, and younger consumers are more willing to buy sparkling wine with the endorsement information removed. We conclude that sparkling wine label information content should be optimised for different market segments and consumer characteristics. This study provides important insights that can guide sparkling wine marketers and retailers in this process. Full article

Consumers’ demand for ‘healthy’ food is growing at a fast pace. Beverages are one of the fastest-growing segments in the healthy food market. Kombucha is a product with a rapid market growth and is considered a ‘healthy beverage’. Kombucha drinkers (n = 296) in the contiguous United States (U.S.) were targeted to investigate differences in the various consumer segments regarding the healthy eater’s behavior, namely—(1) healthy diet stage-of-change attitudes, (2) healthy eating criteria, and (3) label information usage. An online survey questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. The data were analyzed via chi-square tests and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA). The majority of kombucha consumers were health-conscious and kombucha fitted into their view of a healthy diet. The female, older, western U.S. residents, and higher-educated consumers were more likely to take action and maintain a healthier diet. Healthy eaters’ idea of a healthy diet was very similar to that of the general population. Kombucha consumers focused mainly on sugar/calories and natural/organic ingredients. Additional investigations to expand the understanding of the healthy eater’s behavior with actual kombucha samples are needed in the future. Full article

This study aimed to evaluate the differences in physicochemical properties, antioxidant properties, and rheology between guava nectar with sucrose and guava nectar with neotame and stevia addition (0.01% and 0.05%). All parameters were investigated during refrigerated storage at 4 °C for 15 days. The result showed that all sweetened guava juice samples led to the juice with the greatest presence of overall appearance and antioxidant property. The flow behavior of sweetened guava juice was shear-thinning which was not different from guava juice without sweetener. However, the major volatile flavor compounds identified in all guava juice samples were β-caryophyllene, α-caryophyllene, bisabolene, aromadendrene, α-humulene, and nerolidol, which is not different from guava juice without sweeteners during storage. It indicated that stevia and neotame are good alternative sweeteners to produce low caloric juice production. Full article

Wildfires produce smoke, which can then encounter wine grapes, causing the fruit to absorb smoke-related volatile organic compounds. These compounds impact the sensorial profiles of the resulting wines, introducing an uncharacteristic smokey flavor and ashy finish. Since these off-flavor attributes are observed to have longer-lasting perception, a proper inter-stimulus protocol is necessary to ensure an accurate sensory analysis. Previous work has indicated that a 1 g/L pectin rinse with 120 s of separation is effective for clearing the smoke flavor to mitigate potential carryover effects. The purpose of this work was to determine if there was a more efficient rinsing protocol to lessen the time taken between samples. By using wines with various levels of smoke exposure (high, moderate, and none), the efficacy of four different rinse systems were evaluated with a fixed-time-point evaluation system. These results indicate that a 4 g/L glucose solution is more efficient than pectin, requiring only 90 s of separation to clear smoke flavor perception. Additionally, this work identified appropriate references for the retronasal attributes associated with smoke taint in wine. These results can be used to guide a sensory analysis of wildfire-affected wines to ensure effective and accurate results. Full article

Gyokuro is a style of Japanese green tea produced by employing agricultural shading in the weeks before harvest. This method results in a tea product with different organoleptic and chemical properties than common Japanese green tea. In an effort to yield the highest quality and commercially valuable green tea product, the present study explores the influence of shading treatments and the duration of shading on the natural biochemistry of the green tea plant. This study applied shading treatments at light intensity conditions of 40%, 16%, 10% and 1% of available ambient light and the application of a red-colored shade cloth of 60% opacity. The Quality Index Tool was used to measure the quality and commercial value of the green tea, using individual target constituents (theanine, caffeine and the catechins) quantified from HPLC analysis. This study shows that very high levels of total visible spectrum light shading (~99%) is required to achieve improvements in quality and commercial value. Specifically, this improvement is a direct result of changes in the mood- modifying bioactive metabolites theanine and caffeine. This study concludes that in green tea growing regions with more hours of sunlight per year, such as on the Central Coast of Australia, more intense shading will achieve products with improved quality and commercial value, which has more potential to be marketed as a functional ingredient. Full article

Much attention has recently been paid to β-Galactosidases (β-D-galactoside galactohidrolase; EC 3.2.1.23), commonly known as lactases, due to the lactose intolerance of the human population and the importance of dairy products in the human diet. This enzyme, produced by microorganisms, is being used in the dairy industry for hydrolyzing the lactose found in milk to produce lactose-free milk (LFM). Conventionally, β-galactosidases catalyze the hydrolysis of lactose to produce glucose and galactose in LFM; however, they can also catalyze transgalactosylation reactions that produce a wide range of galactooligosaccharides (GOS), which are functional prebiotic molecules that confer health benefits to human health. In this field, different works aims to identify novel microbial sources of β-galactosidase for removing lactose from milk with the relative GOS production. Lactase extracted from thermophilic microorganisms seems to be more suitable for the transgalactosylation process at relatively high temperatures, as it inhibits microbial contamination. Different immobilization methods, such as adsorption, covalent attachment, chemical aggregation, entrapment and micro-encapsulation, have been used to synthesize lactose-derived oligosaccharides with immobilized β-galactosidases. In this mini-review, particular emphasis has been given to the immobilization techniques and bioreactor configurations developed for GOS synthesis in milk, in order to provide a more detailed overview of the biocatalytic production of milk oligosaccharides at industrial level. Full article

Fruit spirit distillations processes are based on physical principles of heat and mass transfer. These principles are decisive for the separation of desired and undesired aroma compounds, which affect the quality of the distilled product. It is mandatory to control heat and mass transfer parameters to be able to perform fruit spirit distillation processes in a reproducible manner and to achieve equal products with similar volatile compound compositions repeatedly. Up to now, only limited information is available on the magnitude of reproducibility errors since fruit spirit distillation columns are typically not equipped with a suitable control or monitoring technique. We upgraded a batch distillation column with digitized instrumentation and a control technique to be able to control crucial parameters such as thermal energy inputs and reflux rates. This study aimed to identify whether control over two distillation parameters has the potential to enable us to perform distillation processes repeatedly. This study analyzed the magnitude of reproducibility errors for (i) six monitored distillation process parameters and (ii) 13 quantified volatile compounds in the product between duplicated distillation runs performed with equal setups. A total of eight different distillations were performed in duplicate (n = 16), while the six distillation parameters were monitored and logged every ten seconds. The produced distillates were equally subsampled into 20 fractions and each fraction analyzed for 13 volatile compound concentrations. Based on a dataset of 28,600 monitored duplicate distillation process data points, this study showed that process parameters can indeed be replicated with a median relative standard deviation (RSD) of <0.1% to 7% when two crucial process parameters are controlled. The comparison of 1540 volatile compound concentrations in the product fractions showed a reproducibility error with an average median RSD of 9 ± 8%. This illustrated that by gaining control over thermal energy input and reflux rates, the reproducibility of fruit spirit distillation processes and their associated products can largely be met. It is advisable to equip distillation columns with a suitable control technique to be able to reproduce the performance of fruit spirit distillations. Full article

In this study, pulsed electric fields (PEFs) were evaluated as extraction-aiding technology during soymilk manufacturing to improve its isoflavone profile. Low-intensity PEFs were applied at different processing conditions in two stages of the soymilk extraction process, hydrated soybeans (HSB) and soybean slurry (SBS), with the soymilk extracted from the conventional process as control (CSM). Overall, resultant soymilk samples from PEF-HSB and PEF-SBS presented lower concentrations of glucosides isoflavones and greater aglycone content than those in CSM. In contrast to genistin (Gin) and daidzin (Din), which decreased around 18.5–52.6% and 10.9–54.6%, respectively, an increase in genistein (Ge, 12.3–64.4%) and daidzein (Da, 9–55.8%) was observed. The total isoflavone content (TIC) of most soymilk samples prepared from PEF-HSB was lower than that of the CSM. Conversely, when PEF-SBS was used, the TIC of resultant soymilk was not significantly affected or slightly decreased. However, PEF treated HSB at 10 kVcm⁻¹/100 pulses and SBS at 6 kVcm⁻¹/10 pulses led to a significant augment in TIC, of up to 109 ± 2.39 and 110 ± 1.26 μg/g, respectively, in the extracted soymilk samples. These results indicated that low-intensity PEF is a potential technology that could be implemented during soymilk manufacturing processing to modify the isoflavone profile and content of soymilk, mainly increasing its aglycone concentration. Full article

Tea contains about 230 chemical bioactive compounds, of which polyphenols represent the most considerable fraction (30% of total dry weight). These compounds have relevant nutritional and pharmacological effects on human health, exerting antioxidant activities against oxidative stress-induced damage. The industrial processes applied in tea production can lead to qualitative and quantitative changes in the phenolic content and composition and in antioxidant properties, thus influencing their potential biological activities. Meanwhile, the procedure for tea preparation may influence the quantity of the extracted phenolic compounds. In this study, the effects of different infusion parameters, such as the water type used for infusion (tap water, distilled water, and natural mineral water), time (3, 5, and 10 min), temperature (T = 80 °C and 100 °C), and pH (ranged between 3 and 9) were considered. The optimal infusion variables resulting from the study were obtained by extracting phenolic compounds at T = 100 °C for 10 min, both for green (916.12–1169.81 mg GAE/g) and black (932.03–1126.62 mg GAE/g) bagged tea samples, respectively. Full article

Fresh carrot juice presents nutritional and organoleptic qualities which have to be preserved. However, it is a fast perishable beverage, and its low-acidic pH promotes the development of foodborne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms. This study aims to assess the modification and variability of physicochemical and microbial indicators during storage of carrot juice, and to isolate and select microorganisms to be used as promoters of spoilage to quantify the effect of preservation treatments. To achieve that, 10 batches of carrot Daucus carota cv. Maestro juice were prepared independently, stored up to 14 days at 4 °C and analyzed. Volatile compound composition differed mainly according to the analyzed batch. During storage, an increase of the content of ethanol, ethyl acetate or 2-methoxyphenol, which are produced by different microorganisms, was noticed. Isolation of bacteria revealed Pseudomonas, lactic acid bacteria, and enterobacteria, some of them provoking odor modification of carrot juice at 4 °C. Assays in carrot juice with isolated yeasts and molds showed the ability of Meyerozyma guillermondii to induce texture modification and some isolates, e.g., Pichia guillermondii, resulted in gas production. Selected isolates able to induce spoilage are useful to test preservative treatments of fresh carrot juice under controlled conditions. Full article

The production of beer yields a number of by-product streams, with spent brewers’ yeast being the second most abundant in volume. The high nutritional value of spent yeast has seen a large proportion of spent brewers’ yeast being used for both food and feed purposes. One of the uses of spent brewers’ yeast for human consumption has been the production of yeast spreads, which came onto the market in the early 20th century, first in the United Kingdom and shortly thereafter in the commonwealth dominions, especially Australia and New Zealand. In this research we investigated the national status of yeast spreads in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. We show that a brewery by-product such as spent brewers’ yeast is more than a mere novel utilisation of a waste stream but have become inherently associated with national identities of these countries to such an extent that some brands have become iconicised. Furthermore, some yeast spread brands have become a symbol of (inter)national polarisation, purely based on its initial sensorial characterisation. Full article

The world’s beer market has never been more diverse. Most beers are produced in modern and technologically advanced breweries that use high quality raw materials, thus resulting in minor differences of physical–chemical properties between various beers (of the same style). However, consumers focus on constant quality and sensory properties of their chosen beer. Sensory evaluation is not an easy task and involves flexible methods for determination of differences and changes between beers. It is commonly used in breweries to provide constant quality of finished products, but also to ensure the quality of different raw materials (water, malt, hops) and to minimize the influence of the production process on final quality of beer. Full article

(1) Background: beverages based on extracts from Camellia sinensis are popular worldwide. Due to an increasing number of processed teas on the market, there is a need to develop unified classification standards based on chemical analysis. Meanwhile, phytochemical characterizations are mainly performed on tea samples from China (~80%). Hence, data on teas of other provenances is recommended. (2) Methods: in the present investigation, we characterized lyophilised extracts obtained by infusion, maceration and methanolic extraction derived from tea samples from China, Japan, Sri Lanka and Portugal by phytochemistry (catechins, oxyaromatic acids, flavonols, alkaloids and theanine). The real benefits of drinking the tea were analysed based on the bioavailability of the determined phytochemicals. (3) Results: the infusions revealed the highest total phenolic contents (TPC) amounts, while methanolic extracts yielded the lowest. The correlation matrix indicated that the levels of phenolic compounds were similar in the infusions and methanolic samples, while extractions made by maceration were significantly different. The differences could be partially explained by the different amounts of (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), (-)-epicatechin gallate (ECG) and gallic acids (GA). The catechin percentages were significantly lower in the macerations, especially the quantity of EGCG decreases by 4- to 5-fold after this process. (4) Conclusions: the results highlight the importance of the processing methodology to obtain “instant tea”; the composition of the extracts obtained with the same methodology is not significantly affected by the provenance of the tea. However, attention should be drawn to the specificities of the Japanese samples (the tea analysed in the present work was of Sencha quality). In contrast, the extraction methodology significantly affects the phytochemical composition, especially concerning the content of polyphenols. As such, our results indicate that instant tea classification based on chemical composition is sensible, but there is a need for a standard extraction methodology, namely concerning the temperature and time of contact of the tea leaves with the extraction solvent. Full article

In most areas of the world, camelids are considered exotic animals, living only in zoological gardens. Additionally, considering the original lands where they were previously bred with specific economic and social aims, today it is possible to detect a reduction in their total numbers. Typically bred as working animals for goods transportation in desert regions, and as a source of meat and milk, in recent years, camels have been dismissed due to the construction of new roads for motor vehicles, the migration of nomadic populations from deserts to urban zones, and the choice of some autochthonous bovine breeds as sources of meat and milk. The decline in camelids heads seems irreversible. Camels should be considered a valid source of food in marginal areas; the peculiar quality parameters of their milk, showing the proper characteristics for the use of this milk in human nutrition, can justify the choice for breeding them, rather than considering camels only as objects of amusement. Full article

Wine and dine-in restaurants have been nonspecial for consumers and increasingly popular. This study investigated consumers’ wine purchase behaviors by applying the extended theory of planned behavior (ETPB) and consumer knowledge. This study used a survey method to collect the data. The study measured wine consumption behaviors and understanding. We divided respondents based on their subjective and objective knowledge of wine and then added an extended variable to the model. We analyzed the data with descriptive analysis, correlations, exploratory factor analysis, ANOVA, and multiple regression. Results of exploratory factor analysis extracted attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and subjective knowledge. Results of regression showed that attitude, PBC, and subjective and objective knowledge affected consumers’ behavioral intention to purchase wine at a restaurant while the subjective norm showed no significance. This study applied the extended theory of planned behavior to analyze consumers’ subjective and objective knowledge in investigating their wine consumption behaviors. Results of this study suggest that consumers’ consumption of wine at restaurants is not a special occasion. The consumer’s attitude toward wine significantly impacted their decision to purchase wine at a restaurant. In addition, subjective knowledge showed more impact on behavioral intention than objective knowledge. Full article