Quality of Sour Cherry Juice of Different Clones and Cultivars (Prunus cerasus L.) Determined by a Combined Sensory and NMR Spectroscopic Approach

Juice was manufactured from seven different sour cherry clones/cultivars and evaluated by quantitative descriptive sensory analysis and (1)H NMR spectroscopy. The sensory evaluation showed a large variation in several sensory attributes between the sour cherry clones/cultivars, which could be divided into two groups on the basis of both the sensory data and the NMR spectroscopic data. These groups were closely related to the genetic background of the clones. Kelleris clones were distinctly different from Stevnsberry and Fanal clones. Hence, (1)H NMR spectroscopic data seem to correlate with sensory quality of different sour cherry clones. In addition, malic acid was the most important metabolite for modeling the two highly correlated sensory attributes sweetness and sourness, whereas the glucose content had a slight effect and the fructose content had no impact on sweetness/sourness. Other metabolites (ethyl acetate, asparagine, ethanol) could be correlated with sensory attributes; however, a direct causal connection could not be established.