Cocoa products are obtained from the seeds of Theobroma cacao L. In this research, cocoa liquor and chocolate produced from cocoa beans from West Africa (Forastero, “bulk” cacao) and Ecuador (Nacional variety, “fine-flavor” cacao), were investigated, using a novel approach in which various analytical techniques are combined in order to obtain in-depth knowledge of the studied cocoa samples. The levels of various classes of primary metabolites were determined and a wide range of secondary metabolites, including volatile organic acids, aldehydes, esters, pyrazines, polyphenols, methylxanthines and biogenic amines, were identified and/or quantified by GC-MS and UPLC-HRMS. Odor Activity Values (OAV) were calculated to assess the contribution of individual volatiles on the final aroma.

Various volatile aroma compounds were more abundant in the West African cocoa liquor and chocolate, while the Ecuadorian samples were richer in most quantified non-volatile metabolites. Principal component analysis (PCA) confirmed that the four samples can be clearly distinguished. Alcohols, pyrazines, amino acids and biogenic amines were found to be highly influential in causing this differentiation. The proposed approach can be useful in future studies on more extensive cocoa sample collections, in order to highlight similarities and pinpoint typical differences in chemical composition among these samples.

可可产品是从可可豆的种子中获得的。在这项研究中，分别使用了西非（Forastero，“散装”可可）和厄瓜多尔（Nacional品种，“细味”可可）的可可豆生产的可可液和巧克力。使用一种新颖的方法进行了调查，其中将各种分析技术结合在一起，以获得对所研究可可豆样品的深入了解。确定了各种主要代谢物的水平，并通过GC-MS和UPLC-HRMS鉴定和/或定量了各种次要代谢物，包括挥发性有机酸，醛，酯，吡嗪，多酚，甲基黄嘌呤和生物胺。 。计算气味活性值（OAV）以评估各个挥发物对最终香气的贡献。

西非可可液和巧克力中各种挥发性香气化合物含量更高，而厄瓜多尔的样品中最定量的非挥发性代谢物含量更高。主成分分析（PCA）证实可以清楚地区分这四个样品。酒精，吡嗪，氨基酸和生物胺被发现在引起这种分化方面具有很高的影响力。所提出的方法可用于将来对更广泛的可可样品集合的研究，从而突出这些样品之间的相似性并查明这些样品中化学成分的典型差异。