Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Jul 26;12(15):2841.
doi: 10.3390/foods12152841.

Chinese Baijiu and Whisky: Research Reservoirs for Flavor and Functional Food

Jinchen Li  1   2   3 , Qiuyu Zhang  1   2   3 , Baoguo Sun  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

Chinese Baijiu and Whisky: Research Reservoirs for Flavor and Functional Food

Jinchen Li et al. Foods. .

Abstract

Baijiu is a traditional spirit with high reputation in the Chinese community, and whisky, on the other hand, is a renowned spirit in Western culture, with both contributing a major proportion to the consumption and revenue in the global spirit market. Interestingly, starting with similar raw materials, such as grains, diverse production methods lead to different organoleptic profiles. In addition, such enormous attention they attract renders them as a crucial part in food and the related industry. Therefore, great efforts are made in improving product quality and optimizing production processes, such as flavor enhancement, facility development, and deep utilization of byproducts. Given the huge impacts and great involvements of these spirits in the general food industry, research focusing on either spirit is of referential significance for other relevant fields. With the aim of facilitating such collaboration, this review discusses the current research status, in a comparative manner, of both spirits in respect to key production processes-oriented sensory and flavor analysis, deep utilization of byproducts, and spirit-derived functional food investigations. Finally, the internal correlations based on the abovementioned criteria are identified, with research prospects proposed.

Keywords: Chinese baijiu; food flavor; functional food; sensory analysis; whisky.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Baijiu flavor wheel, adapted from the Chinese National Standard of Terminology of Baijiu sensory evaluation. Explanations of certain phrases: Qu (fermentation and saccharification agent comprised of mixtures of micro-organisms; detailed explanation available in Section 3.1), Jiao (aromas derived from specific fermentation vessels, which are the habitat of mixtures of micro-organisms and grains, characteristic aromas in strong-aroma baijiu), Jiang (sauce aromas derived from unique production techniques characteristic of sauce-aroma baijiu), Mi (aromas derived from baijiu made from rice instead of sorghum), Chen (aromas derived from baijiu aging), Jiuhai (a specific aging vessel; detailed explanation available in Section 3.2).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Whisky flavor wheel.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Simplified illustration flowchart of baijiu (a) and whisky (b) production procedures prior to aging. Simplified illustration of traditional zeng (c). Explanations of Qu, daqu, xiaoqu, and fuqu and zeng can be found in Section 3.1 and Section 3.2.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Simplified illustration flowchart of baijiu (a) and whisky (b) production procedures prior to aging. Simplified illustration of traditional zeng (c). Explanations of Qu, daqu, xiaoqu, and fuqu and zeng can be found in Section 3.1 and Section 3.2.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Heatmap of the occurrences of key aroma compounds identified in baijiu and whisky.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Correlations among different styles of baijiu and whisky based on volatile compositions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. National Bureau of Statistics of People’s Republic of China National Data. [(accessed on 26 November 2022)];2021 Available online: https://data.stats.gov.cn/easyquery.htm?cn=A01&zb=A020909&sj=202306.
    1. Sun J., Wang Z., Sun B. Low Quantity but Critical Contribution to Flavor: Review of The Current Understanding of Volatile Sulfur-containing Compounds in Baijiu. J. Food Compos. Anal. 2021;103:104079. doi: 10.1016/j.jfca.2021.104079. - DOI
    1. Liu H., Sun B. Effect of Fermentation Processing on the Flavor of Baijiu. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2018;66:5425–5432. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.8b00692. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Tu W., Cao X., Cheng J., Li L., Zhang T., Wu Q., Xiang P., Shen C., Li Q. Chinese Baijiu: The Perfect Works of Microorganisms. Front. Microbiol. 2022;13:919044. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.919044. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang L., Fan S., Yan Y., Yang L., Chen S., Xu Y. Characterization of Potent Odorants Causing a Pickle-like Off-Odor in Moutai-Aroma Type Baijiu by Comparative Aroma Extract Dilution Analysis, Quantitative Measurements, Aroma Addition, and Omission Studies. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2020;68:1666–1677. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.9b07238. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources