Aroma is one of the most important criteria of tea quality, but the dynamic changes of aroma profile during the manufacturing process, and the chemical basis of characteristic aroma in Fu brick tea remain largely unknown. In this study, a total of 72 volatiles were identified and quantified, only the esters content increased sharply during the process. Sensory quantitative description analysis revealed that the ‘green’ attribute was dominated in the early processing stage, and the ‘fungal flower’, ‘flower’, ‘mint’ and ‘woody’ attributes became the major contributors to the aroma character in the later processing stages. Indicated by partial least-squares analysis, the linalool, acetophenone, and methyl salicylate were identified as key volatiles contributors to the ‘fungal flower’, ‘flower’, and ‘mint’ attributes, the cedrol contributed to ‘woody’ attribute, and twelve alcohols and aldehydes were related to ‘green’ attribute. Besides, bidirectional orthogonal partial least squares analysis revealed that six fungal genera Aspergillus, Candida, Debaryomyces, Penicillium, Unclassified_k_Fungi, Unclassified_o_Saccharomycetales were identified as core functional microorganisms link to the metabolism of volatiles. Taken together, these findings provide new insights into Fu brick tea aroma profile variation and increase our understanding of the formation mechanism of the characteristic aroma during the manufacturing process.

香气是茶质量的最重要标准之一，但是在制造过程中香气特征的动态变化以及富砖茶特有香气的化学基础仍然未知。在这项研究中，总共鉴定和定量了72种挥发物，仅酯含量在此过程中急剧增加。感官定量描述分析显示，“绿色”属性在早期加工阶段占主导地位，“真菌花”，“花”，“薄荷”和“木质”属性成为后期加工中香气特征的主要贡献者。阶段。通过偏最小二乘分析表明，芳樟醇，苯乙酮和水杨酸甲酯被确定为“真菌花”，“花”和“薄荷”属性的关键挥发性成分，雪松对“木质”属性有贡献，十二种醇和醛与“绿色”属性有关。此外，双向正交偏最小二乘分析显示六个真菌属曲霉属，假丝酵母，德巴利酵母属，青霉属，Unclassified_k_Fungi，Unclassified_o_Saccharomycetales被鉴定为核心功能性微生物链接到挥发物的代谢的影响。综上所述，这些发现为富砖茶香气特征变化提供了新的见解，并增加了我们对制造过程中特征香气形成机理的理解。