Fruit sensory test of new sweet cherry cultivars

Cherry fruit quality is a rather complicated subject and is usually measured using indices related to objective nutritional properties or physical and chemical profiles. Yet we venture into altogether different terrain when we want to rate fruit according to a scale measuring 'standards of excellence'. It is precisely this latter goal that Bologna University and Astra Innovazione and Sviluppo jointly set out to determine by testing the sensory qualities of the new cherry cultivars 'Sweet Aryana (TM)', 'Sweet Lorenz (TM)', 'Sweet Gabriel (TM)', 'Sweet Valina (TM)' and 'Sweet Saretta (TM)' against the widely grown benchmark cultivars 'Burlat', 'Celeste((R))', 'Giorgia' and 'Lapins' of matching picking dates. A panel of twenty experts took part in a series of tasting sessions each of which tested only six samples with one replication. The samples were rated via qualitative data analysis using descriptor sheets with a rating scale ranging from 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest). Descriptive scoring was associated with a preference rating scheme that included the parameters of appearance, fragrance, taste, texture and overall score. A sensory profile called graphic radar was drawn up for each genotype and a point-score assigned to the following descriptors: colour intensity, sweetness, acidity, sweet-to-acid ratio, perception of bitterness, aromatic intensity, flesh firmness, juiciness, skin resilience, and degree of stone cling. Ranking-tests were also run on three samples served randomly at the same time to each panel member who then rated them in order of preference for appearance, fragrance, flavour and texture against the benchmark cultivars, the comparative overall scores being calculated at the end. The results of these tests rate all five new cultivars as 'excellent', their values and scores being higher than the benchmark cultivars.