Sensory Characterisation and Chemical Composition of Alcoholic Pear Beverages

Perry, or pear cider, is a fermented beverage made from the juice of varieties of pears. Alcoholic pear beverages or pear ciders have not been investigated that widely and there are no available data on utilization of Finnish pears in alcoholic beverages or of their phenolic profiles. The aim is to find pear cultivars with suitable quality requirements and sensory properties to be used in pear cider production in Finland. This study aims to investigate the correlations between phenolic compound profile and sensory properties of alcoholic pear beverages. Alcoholic pear beverages included in the study consisted fifteen pear variants received from the Natural Resources Institute of Finland and of two commercial cultivars. The chosen pear juices were fermented with one yeast strain from both Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC1116) and Torulaspora delbrueckii (TD291). Sensory characteristics were studied by organizing a sensory evaluation with a trained panel. Focus of the evaluation was in the flavour, odour, and appearance characteristics of the samples. In chemical analysis the phenolic compounds were extracted with ethyl acetate extraction and the quantification and identification were done using UPLC and Q-Tof-MS respectively. The obtained results showed that the major differences between the sensory properties of pear beverage samples originated from the pear cultivars, whereas the fermentation with different yeast strains has some role in the odour of the beverages. Significant differences were observed between the cultivars especially when comparing the sweetness and astringency of the alcoholic pear beverages or the intensity of cooked pear odour. The interactions between the sensory properties were mainly found between the sour, sweet and astringent attributes and the polyphenolic profiles. Further and more specific research on the phenolic profiles of pear ciders is still needed, but in the end, the results from this study show strong potential on these Finnish pear variants or blends of them being used in local pear ciders