{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T12:31:19Z","timestamp":1790857879283,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,23]],"date-time":"2026-04-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1776902400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Hainan Province Science and Technology Special Fund","award":["ZDYF2023GXJS157"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ZDYF2023GXJS157"]}]},{"name":"Hainan Province Science and Technology Special Fund","award":["ZDYF2024XDNY199"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ZDYF2024XDNY199"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100013065","name":"Key Science and Technology Program of Haikou","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["2024-050"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024-050"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100013065","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Foods"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The primary processing shapes the taste characteristics of coffee beans, while the regulation pathways remain unclear. Coffee beans processed by five methods\u2014dry processing (DP), wet processing (WP), red honey (RH), black honey (BH) and anaerobic fermentation (AF)\u2014were evaluated using electronic tongue analysis, sensory evaluation, and untargeted metabolomics. Sensory evaluation scores for mouthfeel, balance, and overall were higher in BH and AF. Conversely, the WP and DP exhibited heightened bitterness and astringency responses on the electronic tongue sensors, particularly for the former. The multigroup metabolomic comparison identified 808 DMs, and WGCNA revealed eight sensory-related modules containing 467 hub metabolites, mainly amino acids and derivatives, organic acids, alkaloids, and phenolic acids. KEGG analysis demonstrated that pathways such as caffeine metabolism and glycerophospholipid metabolism were the main pathways responsible for the metabolic differences. Further correlation analysis revealed potential flavor components closely associated with key taste characteristics. 1,3,4,5-tetrahydroxycyclohexanecarboxylic acid and Tyr demonstrated positive associations with bitterness, while TPC, TFC, Gly, and Met exhibited negative correlations with bitterness and astringency. Glu demonstrated a positive correlation with umami. These findings elucidate the material basis by which the primary processing modulates non-volatile compounds and taste perception, offering new insights into enhancing coffee quality.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/foods15091475","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,23]],"date-time":"2026-04-23T17:04:59Z","timestamp":1776963899000},"page":"1475","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Analysis of Changes in Taste Characteristics of Coffee at Different Primary Processing Methods Using E-Tongue, Untargeted Metabolomics and WGCNA"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Ying","family":"Liang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Nongken Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd., Collaborative Innovation Laboratory, College of Food Sciences & Engineering, Hainan University, 58 People Road, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yaqian","family":"Yuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Nongken Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd., Collaborative Innovation Laboratory, College of Food Sciences & Engineering, Hainan University, 58 People Road, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jia","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Nongken Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd., Collaborative Innovation Laboratory, College of Food Sciences & Engineering, Hainan University, 58 People Road, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenxue","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Nongken Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd., Collaborative Innovation Laboratory, College of Food Sciences & Engineering, Hainan University, 58 People Road, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Weijun","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Nongken Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd., Collaborative Innovation Laboratory, College of Food Sciences & Engineering, Hainan University, 58 People Road, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qiuping","family":"Zhong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Nongken Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd., Collaborative Innovation Laboratory, College of Food Sciences & Engineering, Hainan University, 58 People Road, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jianfei","family":"Pei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Nongken Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd., Collaborative Innovation Laboratory, College of Food Sciences & Engineering, Hainan University, 58 People Road, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2178-1438","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chun","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiong","family":"Fu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rongrong","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Nongken Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd., Collaborative Innovation Laboratory, College of Food Sciences & Engineering, Hainan University, 58 People Road, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8985-2538","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Haiming","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Nongken Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd., Collaborative Innovation Laboratory, College of Food Sciences & Engineering, Hainan University, 58 People Road, Haikou 570228, China"},{"name":"Haikou Key Laboratory of Special Foods, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104411","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tifs.2024.104411","article-title":"Coffee: A Comprehensive Overview of Origin, Market, and the Quality Process","volume":"146","author":"Freitas","year":"2024","journal-title":"Trends Food Sci. 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