Cocoa volatile compounds affect aroma but not taste

Flavor is one of the most essential indicators for determining the quality of cocoa beans, especially fine flavor cocoa. The volatile compound in the beans affect the mechanism the flavor emergence. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the volatile compound in the aromatic and non-aromatic cocoa groups as one of FFCs indicator. It was conducted at the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute, Jember, East Java, Indonesia. Furthermore, the genetic material used consisted of six aromatic cocoa genotypes, such as DR 2, ICCRI 03, ICCRI 07, ICCRI 09, MCC 02, and TSH 858 as well as four non-aromatic genotypes such as Sulawesi1, Sulawesi 2, KW 516, and KEE 2. A completely randomized block design (RCBD) was used with three repetitions. The fermented bean samples of each genotype were analyzed of volatile compound at the Food and Science Laboratory, Jember Polytechnic, East Java and sensory test was conducted by three certified panelists from ICCRI. Data were analyzed by orthogonal contrast analysis with IRRI's STAR 2.0.1 software. While the Microsoft Excel 2019 and R Studio were used for correlation analysis and heatmaps. The results showed aldehydes, acids, esters, pyrroles, and pyrazines of aromatic cocoa bean group higher than the non-aromatic. The alanine and terpenoid compounds was only found in clones DR 2 and ICCRI 03, while the alcohol and phenol compounds dominated in the non-aromatic group. Genotypes were grouped into six groups, based on flavor and volatile compound. ICCRI 09 characterized by strong acidity with a fresh fruit, spicy and sweet aroma as well as containsed aldehydes. Furthermore, ICCRI 03, MCC 02, and TSH 858 bean had weaker acidity and aroma than ICCRI 09 and contain terpenoids. ICCRI 07 had a nutty and woody aroma and was dominated by furan and pyrazine compounds. While Sulawesi 1 had a putrid aroma and alkaloids. The genotype groups of KW 516, KEE2, and Sulawesi 2 had astringent taste, dirty/dusty and moldy aroma as well as contained alcohol and phenol.
Keywords: Aromatic; Flavor; Non-aromatic; Theobroma cacao L; Volatile compounds