A lexicon for green odor or flavor and characteristics of chemicals associated with green

The sensory characteristic "green" has been used frequently in descriptive sensory analyses of various foods. A six-member highly trained descriptive panel determined that "green" is not a single characteristic, but can have several different manifestations. Generally, green can be characterized as unripe, peapod, grassy/leafy, viney, fruity or combinations of those. Additional attributes that were important to the green character included musty/earthy, pungent, bitter, overall sweet and floral. This research also examined the odor characteristics of 22 chemicals in concentrations from 1 to 100,000 ppm. Thirteen chemicals including aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, azoles and ester derivatives had been reported to have green aroma. Nine additional ester derivatives, containing a six carbon core similar to hexanal, were included. Most chemicals tested were found to be green at concentrations of 1,000 ppm and higher Green-grassy/leqfy was the most common green note and musty/earthy and pungent were frequent green adjunct aromas.