Temporal dominance of sensations and preferences of Brazilians and Slovakians: A cross-cultural study of cachaças stored with woods from the Amazon rainforest.

BACKGROUND: Brazilians and Slovakians evaluated the temporal profile and the acceptability of cachaça stored with different woods (Cumarurana (CM), Jatobá (JT) and, Louro-vermelho (LV), which are found in the Amazon rainforest, and also oak), with the aim of performing a cross-cultural comparison of the dynamic profile of the attributes perceived in the cachaças and the sensorial acceptance of the samples.

RESULTS: Important differences were observed between the temporal sensorial profiles generated by the two groups and their preferences. Brazilians preferred cachaças stored with the traditional wood, oak, followed by those stored with JT and CM. In contrast, Slovakians preferred cachaças stored with JT, followed by those stored with LV and oak. For both countries, the dominance of wood flavor and vanilla attributes at the end of the analysis time was positively associated with acceptance, while the dominance of off-flavors and the wood flavor attribute at the beginning of the analysis time was negatively associated with acceptance for Brazilians and Slovakians, respectively.

CONCLUSION: Brazilians preferred cachaça stored with oak wood, and Slovakians preferred cachaça stored with JT wood, with acceptability being strongly associated with the dominance of wood flavor and vanilla attributes at the end of the evaluation time. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.